$60K fine for labour hire company
A labour hire company supplying workers to Waikato asparagus farms has been ordered to pay almost $60,000 after failing to keep employment records.
BBS Horticulture was penalised $57,000 by the Employment Relations Authority after it failed to keep records of employment agreements, wages, time, holiday or leave.
The company was also ordered to pay $1818 in arrears to former workers.
BBS had a history of non-compliance. The Inspectorate first visited BBS in November 2013 and found workers were working in breach of their visa conditions, and without records of employment.
The Labour Inspectorate gave BBS the opportunity to fix its employment practices. The company suggested it was complying by suppling time and wage records a few months later.
When the inspectorate visited in 2015 for a follow-up audit, it found the com- pany had reverted back to non-compliant practices. The company was again unable to supply wage records.
The third visit in October 2016 found 11 Chinese workers, one working in breach of their visa, had no individual employment agreements or time sheets.
The inspectorate questioned BBS Horticulture director and sole shareholder Davinder Singh about the 11 Chinese workers but Singh could not name any of them.
Labour Inspectorate regional manager Kevin Finnegan said: ‘‘Keeping individual employment agreements and time, wage, holiday and leave records, are among employers most basic obligations in New Zealand’’.
BBS Horticulture had received multiple warnings and advice on how to get its practices up to scratch, but continued to ignore its obligations, and showed itself ‘‘to be completely unfit to be an employer’’, Finnegan said.
‘‘Without records employers may be unable to prove they are providing employees with their minimum employment entitlements, such as the minimum wage, so we take these kinds of breaches very seriously.’’
In addition to the fine, the company was on a 24-month stand-down period, which restricted its access to migrant labour.