Source: Employment New Zealand
Canterbury employer Christopher Gray, trading as Motukarara Asparagus, has been ordered by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) to pay $26,000 in penalties for employment law breaches.
This is in addition to $54,000 he was ordered to repay to 13 former employees last year.
The Labour Inspectorate conducted an audit of Mr Gray’s business, and found that in 2017, employees were paid a piece rate based on the amount of asparagus that they picked. This meant their payments fell below the minimum wage for some of the hours worked.
Other breaches included failure by the employer to provide for public holidays, a failure to obtain written consents for deductions from wages and to keep compliant holiday and leave records.