Members of workers union protested outside a bottle shop in Auckland that allegedly underpaid an Indian student, claiming the business owed him $80,000 in unpaid wages.
23-year-old Manjinder Singh who is currently on a post-study work visa claimed he worked for 60 hours per week at four different bottle shops owned by the same man- Ravinder Kumar Arora, but was paid only for 30 hours.
Singh said he worked at the business for over three years and was paid just $7 an hour, whereas the minimum legal wage in New Zealand is $15.75 an hour.
Singh came to New Zealand as an international student, was allowed to work 20 hours in a week.
Members of the Workers United union protesting outside the bottle shop. Source: Facebook
But Sunny Sehgal of the Migrant Workers Association said Singh was actually required to work 35 hours a week. At times he was made to work even longer hours and was paid $7 an hour “under the table, NZ Herald reported.
Since September last year, when Singh moved to a post-study work visa, he has been allowed to work 30 hours a week. But he said he was required to work 62 hours and was never paid annual leave or sick leave.
Sehgal said Singh wasn’t paid for leave when his father died in December last year and he visited his family in India. He said Singh quit six weeks ago after his request for leave was turned down when he again asked to visit India for two months and decided to claim his unpaid wages.
But the business owner denied the allegations saying Singh was always paid the minimum legal wage.
“He had an agreement with us for 30 hours a week which we have been paying, you can check that,” store manager Kamaldeep told NZ Herald.
Store manager Kamaldeep speaking to NZ Herald. Source: NZ Herald
“If you are not paid properly, you will work for one month, two months, six months… after that you will say I can’t work here, you’re not paying me correct. How long can you work if you are paid $7,” he said.
He also said the business owner paid nearly $2500 for Singh’s air travel to India last December.
"Mr Ravi paid for the ticket with his own credit card," Kamaldeep said.
