Restaurant staff exploited

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Five former Auckland restaurant workers - including an Indian immigrant who paid $15,000 to "buy" his job - have been awarded wages arrears in an $80,000 Employment Relations Authority order.

Authority chief Alastair Dumbleton said Kuldeep Kumar Mehta and his restaurant company exploited the workers by denying them "the most basic entitlements" due to all employees.

He ordered Mr Mehta, joint owner of the Exotiqa restaurant on Princes Wharf and an immigration firm called A and NZ Consultants, to repay $15,000 taken from Kanayalal Holaram Duhanja in India and arrears of $7607 owed to another worker.

He said Mr Duhanja was "ensnared" by Mr Mehta, who had a foot in both camps as an immigration consultant in India and a prospective employer in New Zealand.

Mr Mehta's restaurant company, Exotiqa Ltd, has also been ordered to pay $21,014 in arrears to Mr Duhanja and three other workers and penalties of $36,500 to the Labour Department.

The total order amounts to $80,121.31 in what labour inspectorate operations manager Robin Semmens said last night was one of the heftiest awards for breaches of minimum wages and related legislation.

Mr Semmens acknowledged that collecting the money may prove difficult, as Mr Dumbleton had said the restaurant appeared to have been taken over by a new company called Exotiqa 2001 Ltd.

But he said the Employment Relations Act enabled the department to recover dues from individual directors in some circumstances if nothing else was left of their former companies.

Mr Dumbleton said in his decision that he hoped the transfer of assets to companies that were simply re-formed with the same or similar owners to avoid minimum employment legislation would soon be outlawed.

Mr Mehta's wife, Pushpinder Mehta, testified for him at an authority hearing last month, also in his absence, when she accused a labour inspector of blackmail and abetting a conspiracy.

Mr Dumbleton said she was unable to provide any details.

He said that whatever the name and reputation the Exotiqa restaurant may have among diners had been "built on the backs" of employees who worked long hours without being paid even their minimum legal entitlements.

Mr Duhanja said in evidence that he paid the equivalent of $15,000 in India to Mr Mehta in May 2000 after the restaurateur offered him work and permanent residence in New Zealand.

He was offered a job as restaurant manager for $1500 a month with free food and accommodation.

But Mr Dumbleton said he did not receive his dues and ended up with a substantial debt after borrowing money to pay the illegal fee.

"Mr Duhanja was cynically taken advantage of by a countryman who literally cashed in on the natural desire of Mr Duhanja to improve the lot of himself and his family ... "

Four of the five workers concerned were from overseas, but Mr Semmens said he understood all were legally in New Zealand, although he could not rule out proceedings by the Immigration Service against Mr Mehta over his consultancy activities.