(Reprinted from the NZ Herald)
By Sophie Ryan @SophieRyan
A chef employed at a Christchurch Vietnamese restaurant has been awarded $174,356.65 after working for five years without being paid, in what the Employment Relations Authority calls one of an increasing number of cases of exploitation of migrant workers.
His brother has also been awarded $14,386.73 for not being paid either.Bao Ho Van Nguyen and Vu Ho Van Nguyen both worked in Hue Kim Thi Ta’s restaurant Little Saigon.
By Tali Williams, First Union Organiser
(Reprinted from The Daily Blog)
Across the union movement we have seen a number of documented cases now where companies are liquidating their business in order to avoid their legal obligations, in terms of paying the minimum entitlements to their workers.
The most recent example is the case of Momo Tea. Momo Tea workers raised a case related to unpaid wages and annual leave among other breaches to their minimum workers rights. The workers say they were bought into a meeting and told by their employer that because they had raised these breaches the company would be liquidated and they all had to clean up the restaurant and leave as they had lost their jobs. The following day, despite the liquidation, the restaurant carried on trading. The company had simply transferred workers from their other restaurants to cover the shifts.
An Auckland hotel has been ordered by the Employment Relations Authority to pay nearly $80,000 in outstanding wages to two employees.
Filipino couple Abraham and Nancy Agustin were employed at Auckland Harbour Oaks, and alleged the hotel had underpaid them and withheld part of their salaries.
The employers maintained their payment regime is correct but failed to provide any wage and time records to the authority, as required by law.
A former chef at an Auckland cafe has been awarded more than $50,000 in unpaid wages and compensation for unjustified dismissal.
The Employment Relations Authority was told by Lin Zhang that she had been employed by Tan Pacific at its cafe business in Auckland after travelling to New Zealand on a student visa.
Tan Pacific failed to show up for any hearings or respond to allegations throughout the authority’s investigation.
Ms Zhang told the ERA as evidence that her student visa was set to expire when she saw a job for a full time chef at BB’s Cafe advertised.
Ms Zhang said during the course of the interview she told her employer William Tan her visa was about to expire.
She said Mr Tan told her he would offer her the job and help with her visa application if she paid him $23,000 as a bond, to ensure she would remain working for him for two years.
Reporter
Reprinted from TV3 News
In the third winter since the earthquakes, men and machines are still working across Christchurch.
As the demolition nears an end, attention is now turning to the rebuild. Thousands of workers will be needed to rejuvenate a bleak landscape.
And to get numbers, the Government has fast-tracked visa applications to get more people in from overseas.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
READ MORE: Tech5 has provided additional info, which you can read here
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Most of the international workforce is coming from the Philippines, where the Trade Minister was just last month.
More than 700 workers came in last year and the Government is confident that is only going to increase.
By Mike Treen, Unite Union National Director
In the course of this week, Unite Union has dealt with several cases of extreme exploitation of migrant workers.
It seems that some of the liquor shops around Auckland have been employing students from India and paying a pittance– four or five dollars an hour, well below the legal minimum of $13.75 an hour. The students were working well in excess of the legal 20 hours a week allowed under their student visas.
The students are trying to make ends meet. The employers, many of whom are of the same national background as the students they are hiring, are using all sorts of bullying and threats to keep the workers in line. Breaching their visas can be a reason for the students to be sent home, so it is difficult for them to use official channels to complain. Wage and time records are non-existent or falsified.
In one case, the employer had an ownership interest in a private training institution where their student employees were attending courses costing tens of thousands of dollars in fees.
A picket by Unite of one store in the franchised Super Liquor chain got a quick response from the national brand owner to fix the problem and pay what was owed. We shall see.
First Union solidarity- interview with Bill Bradford.
RALLY 7.30AM TUESDAY, LEONARD ISSITT DRIVE, AUCKLAND AIRPORT
Following a failure to reach a resolution between the Auckland Airport and the Auckland Taxi Association, the 180 members of the ATA have chosen to go on hunger strike today outside Auckland Airport’s headquarters.
On Wednesday last week 50 drivers working for President Taxis were notified that President Taxis would no longer have a contract with Auckland Airport as of 11.59 pm on Monday 9 December 2013.
The drivers submitted a list of five demands on 13 November, which are yet to be complied with. So far, the Auckland Airport has agreed to provide only very basic facilities like drinking water, toilets & shades, which has been requested and missing for over 10 years. Taxi companies have also failed to demand these basic needs from Airport management.
“Main rank drivers are surviving on as little as $4 an hour”, said Manmohan Singh, the Association’s spokesperson. “Main rank drivers have been told not to charge more than $20 for inter-terminal transfers, while other big brand companies like Green Cabs have been given permission to charge $35. Demands from ATA such as a ‘restoration’ of these short distance fares have been denied.”
Ends.
For further comment: Manmohan Singh, spokesperson, Auckland Taxi Association, on atai.nz
Unite union will be holding a protest outside Lunn Avenue McDonald’s at 1pm today Friday, exposing racist and discriminatory hiring policies, that harm both migrant workers and local people desperate for jobs say Unite Union organiser Joe Carolan.
“There is huge unemployment of Maori, PI, Pakeha and other groups in Glen Innes, yet seven new hires this week in McDonald’s Lunn Avenue all come from only one ethnic group, the same ethnic group as the anti union store manager.
Lunn Ave workers on picket outside store
“This is part of a systematic hiring policy that makes a mockery of McDonald’s claims to be an equal opportunities employer.
“This discrimination hurts both local people AND the migrant workers hired – because the reason they are hired is that they are in a situation of dependency and feel unable to to speak out when their rights are violated. These workers routinely miss out on breaks, have their hours cut without warning, and are victims of petty workplace bullying.
“We have experienced again and again that whenever stores rely on one migrant ethnic group it results in that group being taken advantage of by managers often also from the same ethnic group. We even have evidence of managers accepting bribes to facilitate promotion and visa sponsorship.
“Our local delegates are Fijian Indian and Maori and they are furious that there is not even one other worker from another ethnic background. They will be joining supporters from the local community at a picket outside the store today at 1pm.”
Further information:
Contact Joe at 029 44 55 702
“When Migrant workers are under attack- stand up, fight back!” echoed through the night air of Auckland’s Balmoral suburb, as the first protest in a Global Day of Action against McDonald’s got underway in New Zealand.
The Balmoral store was built in the face of widespread community opposition with its huge private car park and drive-thru area ruining the historic character of Auckland’s unofficial Chinatown. But the drive-thru was shut down by two picket lines on either entrance, and 70% of customers were persauded by the picket to turn away and dine elsewhere in solidarity with the workers in dispute. 
Unite union activists were joined on the picket line by the Migrant Workers Association, a group that was formed in the battle with Burger King last August, and by Indian KFC workers from the local branch across the road! The KFC store is 100% unionised and prides itself on being a closed shop – the Acting Manager is an Indian union activist and joined the picket, highlighting the difference in pay and conditions between the two chains.
The Unite Union has been leading the McStrike campaign for better day and conditions since Mayday. Unite has unionised over 1500 workers at the 160 McDonald’s stores around the country, many of whom are migrants from India and China.
How mcDonald’s controls Migrant Workers
Unite members have access to exclusive benefits, including free and discounted services and great savings using their Unite membership card. Click on the image above to visit our Members Services website at www.uba.og.nz to register and find out why it pays to belong.
unitenews 