‘Nightmare’ employer to pay $680k
A North Island holiday business and its owner have been banned as employers, and must pay a record $680,350 in penalties and unpaid wage arrears.
New Zealand Fusion International and its co-owner, Shenshen Guan, operated the Golden Springs holiday park in Reporoa, and must pay three migrant workers – who described their situation as being ‘‘like a nightmare’’, and a ‘‘prison’’ – within 28 days.
Following a Labour Inspectorate investigation into New Zealand Fusion, the Employment Court heard two of the workers mortgaged a house and withdrew their children’s university funds in China to each pay a $45,000 premium ‘‘bond’’ to Guan before coming to New Zealand to work at the holiday park.
The workers arrived on visitor visas and began working unlawfully under false promises of being paid.
The court heard the three workers worked on various jobs at the holiday park seven days a week for no wages.
Guan changed their employment contracts and used the fact they did not have working visas as a reason not to pay them.
She also said ‘‘free’’ food and accommodation while staying on the site should offset any expectation of payment.
Fusion has been ordered to pay $300,000 in penalties, with Guan found personally liable for a further $150,000.
Each of the three workers will receive $100,000 of this total, on top of between $69,000 and nearly $92,000 they are to receive in unpaid wages and compensation.
New Zealand Fusion and Guan have also been banned from employing staff for 18 months.
According to the Companies Office register Fusion has another co-owner, Xiaofu Liu, who owns 50 per cent of the company’s shares. Guan and Liu became directors in 2012 but the latter resigned in 2014.
The Employment Court judgment ‘‘sends a strong message that employers who exploit their workers will be put out of business, and charged penalties far in excess of what they may have gained’’, Labour Inspectorate national manager Stu Lumsden said in a statement.
‘‘Any worker is lawfully entitled to minimum employment standards. Any employer who thinks they can flout these laws, especially by being in a rural environment where they think isolating workers is sight unseen, can expect to be heavily penalised,’’ Lumsden said.
The court heard the workers referred to their time at the holiday park as being ‘‘a nightmare’’, felt it was like living in a ‘‘prison’’, and one of them said they ‘‘wanted to die’’.
‘‘None of us want to believe that this sort of thing can happen in New Zealand. But it is happening and we have to deal with it if we want to maintain our reputation as a fair country to work in and to trade with,’’ Lumsden said. ‘‘The chief judge of the Employment Court also reinforced that such conduct requires firm denunciation to drive home that worker exploitation is totally unacceptable in New Zealand.’’
Golden Springs charges about $25 per night for a campsite, about $45 per night for a basic cabin and up to $400 per night for a two-bedroom motel unit.
The holiday park has a rating of 5.8 out of 10 based on 64 reviews on Booking.com. But the travel booking website no longer features the motel on its platform.
In 2016, one reviewer on Trip Advisor said the place was a ‘‘shocker’’, with stained mattress covers, rat faeces and ‘‘in desperate need of repairs’’. ‘‘Never again’’ the reviewer posted.
A review posted on Booking. com in February this year said there were rats in the roof, paperthin walls and ‘‘everything could do with a refreshment’’.
Guan said she would appeal the judgment and claimed the three migrants had signed employment contracts for their work visas but never actually carried out work as none received their work visa.
The court found no evidence of this.
‘‘It was clear that Ms Guan wished to obtain their services sooner rather than later and the visitor visa option provided a convenient means of getting them to New Zealand and securing an earlier start date for their work,’’ Chief Employment Court Judge Christina Inglis said.
Guan said text messages that the Labour Inspectorate provided were taken without context and when translated into English from Mandarin had different meanings. She said she did not provide enough evidence because she was representing herself and could not afford to translate numerous pages through a thirdparty service.
‘‘I don’t have the budget of the Labour Inspectorate to translate pages – one page costs $90.’’
She said the $45,000 bond was to cover rent and food costs while they lived at her motel and waited for their work visa. Guan said this contract had been drawn up by her lawyer in China, and she was under the impression she could ask them to pay her a bond.
Guan advertised a job on We Chat and it caught the attention of two of the migrant workers, Sherry (Xueli) Wang and Mr Meng.
Guan often went to China to look after her parents and husband Liu’s parents.
The third worker was Min Wang, whom Guan described as a family friend and had also moved to New Zealand after being offered a role while in China.
The Labour Inspectorate was already investigating the employment issues of Sherry Wang and Meng, which resulted in Immigration New Zealand cancelling Min Wang’s work visa.
Soon after, the inspectorate broadened its case to also cover Min Wang.
The judge found ‘‘no difficulty’’ in concluding that each of the three complainants was an employee of the park as witness statements from residents, and their We Chat messages confirmed they each undertook work for Guan while they stayed there. ‘‘They presented a broadly consistent pattern of evidence that each of the complainants undertook work around the park, including cooking, cleaning, garden maintenance and reception work,’’ the judge said.
Guan said her relationship with the three was like family.
‘‘When we first met our relationship was very, very good.
‘‘I’m so disappointed about what they did together. We were like a family, we ate together, I cooked for them.’’
Guan said the workers did not work but they were encouraged to help out when they complained of getting bored.
While translated text messages presented by the Labour Inspectorate showed Guan asked for daily reports, she said words in Mandarin had double meanings and this was not taken into account.
‘‘You must do the work I ask for, no more excuse and reason. OK? From today, [every one] of you must send me a work report at the end of day before you go to sleep,’’ one of Guan’s text messages read.
Guan said she was looking for a lawyer to appeal the decision.
‘‘I’m so disappointed about what they did together. We were like a family, we ate together, I cooked for them.’’
Shenshen Guan Golden Springs holiday park owner
‘‘Any employer who thinks they can flout these laws, especially by being in a rural environment where they think isolating workers is sight unseen, can expect to be heavily penalised.’’
Stu Lumsden Labour Inspectorate national manager