A Southland dairy company and its owner, previously found to have exploited three Indonesian workers, has been hit with more fines after being found to have obstructed employment authority investigations.
Rural Practice Ltd has been ordered to pay $10,000 and owner Reza Abdul-Jabbar $5000 after the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) made its determination earlier this month.
The penalties come on top of $215,000 in fines imposed last year when the ERA found the company and its owner had breached minimum employment standards.
The obstruction occurred when Abdul-Jabbar claimed one of the workers involved in the case owed $5000 in recruitment costs, paid to a recruitment agent, and provided a photograph of the receipt as evidence.
When asked for the original document, he supplied a different receipt, prompting the ERA to launch an own-motion inquiry into whether it had been obstructed.
The worker involved denied he had hired a recruitment agent and said he had not seen the invoice in question until the Labour Inspectorate showed it to him.
Abdul-Jabbar was an Invercargill imam and served as a religious adviser and mentor for at least one of the three Indonesian workers he was found to have exploited.
The company and owner have paid more than $116,000 in wage arrears to the three workers, according to the Labour Inspectorate.
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Last year, the ERA found that the company and Abdul-Jabbar had breached employment standards by not paying the workers the minimum wage, unlawfully deducted money from wages and forced workers to pay premiums.
In addition, workers were not paid for certain holiday and leave pay appropriately and accurate wage and time records were not kept.
ERA chief Andrew Dallas, ruling on the obstruction case, found none of the “reasonably available, and objectively verifiable, corroborative material, has ever been provided”.
He also found “it more likely than not this material does not exist”.
On the balance of probabilities, Dallas found an obstruction had occurred due to “the ongoing failure to provide evidence to corroborate the authenticity of two receipts – both materially different but said to be ‘original’”.
He noted the actions of Abdul-Jabbar and his business had made the investigation process “significantly” more difficult for both the ERA and the Labour Inspector.
“The nature of Rural Practice Ltd and Mr Abdul-Jabbar’s conduct in obstructing the Authority’s investigation was serious and sustained. The obstruction was not mere inadvertence or negligence.”
Labour Inspectorate compliance and enforcement head Joanne Hacking said, “that the employer had tried to mislead or deceive Immigration NZ and the Labour Inspectorate by providing them materially different versions of the same documents, and it is deeply concerning to see this type of behaviour impact the authority’s process as well”.
“This sends a strong and clear message that deliberate attempts to frustrate ERA investigations are not tolerated,” she said in a media release.
