Bakery deducts wages for job

A Parakai bakery has been ordered to pay back $33,886 unlawfully deducted from a migrant worker’s wages in return for giving him a job.

EMA Bakery and Espresso Limited director Chhieng Mean Hok required Pavneet Singh to return part of his weekly wages in return for getting the job and support for his work visa applications.

Singh’s bank account showed there were weekly transfers back to Hok’s personal bank account of $190, later increasing to $200, which were labelled as ‘‘rent’’, the Labour Inspectorate found.

But Singh never lived in the bakery premises nor did he pay rent.

EMA denied the weekly transfers from Singh’s account to Hok’s personal account were a premium charged for his job. Singh was earning $16.50 an hour. Hok said the cash payments were made because Singh did not have his own transport at the time and lacked ready access in the Parakai area to an ATM from which he could withdraw money.

Singh worked as a baker from 2011 until February 2017, when he left the job. About four months later, Singh was arrested in Henderson on three charges of assault and one charge of a threat to kill. A psychiatric assessment revealed Singh was a regular user of methamphetamine and had experienced a psychotic episode. Singh also served a sentenced of 10 weeks in prison.

The Employment Relations Authority said the circumstances in which Singh made his complaint to the Labour Inspectorate, well after leaving EMA’s employment and only after being advised of liability to deportation because of criminal activity, cast doubt on the reliability of his evidence.

The authority said attempts from Hok and Singh to cut deals to withdraw the complaint, or not provide evidence to the Labour Inspectorate, damaged both their credibility on claims of the hours he had worked at the bakery.

Singh claimed he worked weekly hours varying from 60 to 70. EMA also failed to keep timesheets. Having not established the basis on which the arrears claim was made, the ERA declined Singh’s application for orders for wage and holiday pay arrears.

The ‘‘rent’’ payments began in March 2013, at $190 a week, and increased from April 2014 to $200 a week, and continued until October 2016. The total value of those payments was $33,886, which the ERA has ordered EMA to pay Singh.

EMA has also been ordered to pay an additional $2969 in interest.