Dinsdale man Gaurav Batra, 43, pictured leaving the Hamilton District Court in January 2022. Photo / Belinda Feek
A businessman who claims not paying two of his staff was simply a “mistake” is now working as an UberEats driver to help his family survive.
Gaurav Batra, through his company GSK Company Ltd, ran The Kebabs Takeaways in Dinsdale and Garden Place, and a cleaning company, Cleantastic.
Two workers were hired and got work visas, approving them to work at the kebab shops, but then they were asked to work at the cleaning company as well.
Not only were they not legally allowed to work for Cleantastic, but Batra never paid them for their work.
Batra was first charged by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in January 2022.
On Monday the 43-year-old was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court on two charges of aiding or abetting GSK to allow a person to work in its service knowing they weren’t entitled to, in 2017 and 2018.
Each charge carries a maximum penalty of a $50,000 fine.
Batra‘s counsel, Arunjeev Singh, told Judge Kiriana Tan that his client paid the victims for their “contractual hours” at the kebab shops, it was just the extra hours at the cleaning company that weren’t paid.
“It’s my submission that it’s not a case where the victims were not paid at all.
“The defendant paid for their contractual hours,” he said.
“That’s what they were lawfully entitled to,” Judge Tan replied.
GSK was incorporated in 2016 and had Batra’s wife listed as its sole director.
Batra was responsible for the day-to-day running of the business, and was also assisted by a friend.
Apart from being a director, his wife did not play a role in the business.
It was Batra who hired and rostered employees and was in charge of maintaining accurate wage and time records, particularly for cleaning duties.
The first victim arrived in New Zealand in March 2015 on a student visa.
In March 2016, he was granted a work visa to work at the kebab shop as an assistant store manager, earning $16 per hour, and working 35 hours per week.
The second victim, an associate of Batra, was hired as a shift manager, and paid $15.25 an hour to work 35 hours per week.
In May 2017, just weeks after being granted their visas, the pair also began working at Cleantastic.
By now, the pair were clocking up about 40 hours per week.
Then, the following month, Batra opened a second kebab shop, in Garden Place.
At the same time, the company started cleaning at four other sites in Hamilton, at various hours from early morning, to finishing late, seven days a week.
Batra didn’t keep any records of the work the pair did for Cleantastic.
There was a verbal agreement with Batra’s friend that victim one would work at one store from 10am to 3pm, then start cleaning duties, while the other victim would work from 3pm to 10pm and clean after that.
From August 2018, the Garden Place store extended trading hours during the week and at the weekends, staying open until 5am.
According to the company records, victim one was working 27 hours for $308 per week, and the second 29 hours per week for $406.96.
From August 2 to October 3, the first victim kept his own timesheet, which showed he was working between 46 and 65 hours per week.
The company had a false record that the first victim took three weeks holiday leave in March 2018. However, he never took any holidays throughout his employment.
An examination found the first victim was owed $16,109.54, and the second victim owed $11,550.76.
Since pleading guilty in February, Batra has paid the victims back in full.
Singh said Batra and his wife now had a combined weekly income of $1830 a week.
They also had two young children and expenses that used up most, if not all, of their income.
Batra had since started working for UberEats for extra income.
He urged the judge to keep in mind his client’s personal and financial circumstances and the fact that he hadn’t appeared in court before.
Singh argued the offending wasn’t the worst of its kind, as the victims just hadn’t been paid for their cleaning hours.
Batra was also of the understanding that the victims could work at both businesses, as it was owned by the same company.
Judge Tan said even if that was the case, they still didn’t get paid for their work at the cleaning company.
She said the victims were more vulnerable given their immigration status.
MBIE prosecutor Martin Denyer pushed for a starting point fine of between $15,000 and $20,000 while Singh argued for about $5000.
Both victims had also suffered financially and emotionally and they had to borrow money from family at the time.
Judge Tan took $10,000 on each charge, before applying discounts, and coming to an end total for both charges of $13,000.
Jason Perry, MBIE’s national manager investigations, said Batra’s offending “wasn’t a one-off mistake.
“It was a sustained pattern of behaviour over nearly two years - hiring workers for one job, then directing them to do another, all while underpaying them and making them work excessive hours.
“Batra’s offending involved deliberate and sustained breaches of visa conditions and employment obligations, resulting in significant hardship for the workers involved.”
The sentencing reinforced the importance of compliance with immigration and employment laws, he said.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.