Journalist 'forced to pay wages to boss'

Photo / Richard Robinson

A young woman who says she had to pay her own wages to her boss in an elaborate money-go-round scheme has gone to the Employment Relations Authority to recover just over $63,000.

The 26-year-old Chinese national, Miss Lin, came to New Zealand as a student in 2001 and was employed as a journalist by the Auckland Chinese-language weekly New Times in 2008 after completing a media studies degree at Victoria University.

She was granted a two-year work permit in August 2008 to work at the New Times, but her application for permanent residence was turned down in February this year when Immigration NZ found evidence that she was reimbursing the newspaper for her wages and concluded that her employment was not genuine.

She resigned from the job in April and lodged a personal grievance claim alleging unjustified constructive dismissal and unjustified disadvantage because she was also required to pay $6000 in "guarantee money" to get the job.

The case before authority member Ken Anderson is seen as an important test case. Employment advocates told the Herald in May that similar "pay-your-own" (PYO) schemes were "rampant" in the immigrant community.

In an initial hearing yesterday, Miss Lin told Mr Anderson that she had been working part-time for a Subway sandwich bar in Wellington after finishing her degree and flew to Auckland in July 2008 when her cousin told her about a fulltime job vacancy at New Times. She said she had a job interview on July 18 and started work on an unpaid trial basis on July 21.

She later accepted that those dates might be wrong after Mr Anderson pointed out that her bank statements showed cash withdrawals in Wellington on both those days.

She said she borrowed from her cousin to pay the $6000 "guarantee money" demanded by New Times soon after she started work.

"The guarantee money is kind of security money. That means it's refundable. It's quite common in the Chinese community, especially in the immigrant community, so every international student knows that," she said.

But she said she did not know that New Times director Sandy Zhou wanted her to pay her own wages until Ms Zhou gave her a bill for her income tax, GST and ACC payments in September 2008.

"I was so shocked when she talked to me about those things because I never heard this before," she said.

"There was no way for me to turn back because it's extremely hard for international students like me. I had already got a work visa for two years. Immigration will say, 'You just got your work permit, why you change your job?' My status was extremely hard. Maybe if I quit the job I have to go back to China."

She said that from then on she paid New Times $2500 just before the 20th of each month and was paid $2039.16 in wages a few days after each payment. The difference between those sums was paid to Inland Revenue.

She had to ask for money from her parents in China and took on a "cash job" at a Chinese restaurant in the evenings to make ends meet. She said she had never met Ms Zhou before she started work at New Times.

However, Ms Zhou said the payments shown in Miss Lin's bank statements were repayments of loans she made to Miss Lin because she had known her since "a long time before" as a relative of one of the newspaper's longstanding advertisers.

"She also told me that she spent a lot of money as an international student, and also she told me that she did not have a good relationship with [the advertiser's] family, and I felt very sympathetic with her. That is why I lent the money to her," Ms Zhou said.

Mr Anderson said: "I find it strange that you would lend $6000 to a young woman who hadn't even started working for you yet."

Ms Zhou replied: "Because I already know her, I also know her family member because her family member has the advertisement relationship with us."

The hearing will resume when the newspaper's accountant and one other witness are available.