“Restaurant Owners Who Exploited Migrant Workers Must Pay Over $420,000”

The former owners of two North Island restaurants who exploited migrant workers and breached numerous minimum employment standards have been ordered to pay more than $330,000 in penalties, compensation and arrears. The exploitation of the seven migrant workers, who were of Indian descent, took place between December 2017 and December 2018.

Employment Court Judge JC Holden also ordered Ajay Sharma and Kavita Sharma, who previously owned Prisha’s Royal Cambridge Indian Restaurant in Cambridge and Roquette Restaurant and Bar in Whakatane, to pay costs of $78,429, taking the total they must pay to more than $420,000. …

Head of Compliance and Enforcement, Labour Inspectorate, Simon Humphries, believed it was appropriate that the owners of the two restaurants had been made to pay significant compensation to the workers they had exploited, as well as pay the wage arrears they owed….

The Labour Inspectorate was also successful in obtaining a Freezing Order against the defendants, allowing the Labour Inspectorate to secure funds from the defendants to pay the arrears and compensation costs in full to the employees…