Exploitative farmer faces prison term

A South Auckland farmer who has spent three years paying off a nearly $430,000 debt for exploiting 75 workers may face prison if he fails to pay the remaining money within four weeks.

Last August, the owner of Binde Enterprises, Jujhar Singh, was given three months to pay an outstanding $120,000, of a $428,000 penalty and wage arrears order handed down by the Employment Relations Authority in 2016.

Binde Enterprises was ordered to pay $208,184 in wage arrears, and $220,000 in penalties after failing to keep accurate wage records, or pay correct holiday pay and wages.

But after failing to pay off the amount he personally owed last week, the ERA ordered Singh to pay $70,000 by April 19. If Singh failed to comply, he could face up to three months’ prison and an additional fine of up to $40,000.

Singh said he was not refusing to pay the outstanding amount but he was not in a position to pay it. He had been unable to sell his late-model BMW for a ‘‘good price’’ to help raise the money, and had only been able to borrow limited amounts from friends and on his credit card.

Singh said he earned wages of $6000 a month as operations manager of Quick Staff Ltd, a company owned and controlled by his wife, Harvinder Kaur.

In addition to this money, Singh also received about $8000 a month from Dhaliwal Construction Ltd, which he is a director and one-third shareholder of.

Singh has a home that was owned by a trust so it could not be sold.

According to the Companies Office register, Singh was a director or shareholder of up to 32 current or former companies and associated with, at least, one other property.

The authority said its patience, as well as the Labour Inspectorate’s, had been ‘‘exhausted’’.

In August, Labour Inspectorate head of horticulture Kevin Finnegan said the move to make Singh personally liable sent a message to other business owners and directors who closed businesses to get out of paying their fines.

‘‘We will continue to pursue cases like this, targeting those who might be hiding behind a company name or failure, or closing it down deliberately, to get away with not paying what they owe for their employment breaches.’’