Former manager faces jail time for non-compliance

A migrant worker who was exploited by his former manager for years welcomed the idea of his ex-boss getting sent behind bars for not complying with the orders of the Employment Relations Authority (ERA).

Deepak Dhiman won in October 2022 nearly $100,000 after the ERA found that his former boss, Devinder Mann, exploited him for eight years when he was working for his pizza-making business in Auckland.

Mann, however, refused to pay Dhiman despite the order from the ERA. Early this year, he received a compliance order from the authority to pay. The order stated that he should pay Dhiman the previously mandated $69,981.00 for arrears of wages and $28,153.14 for arrears of holiday pay.

In addition, Mann should also pay his ex-employee the sum of $1,125 towards its legal costs, and the ERA the filing fee of $71.56.

Should Mann remain non-compliant, the ERA warned that he could receive a three-month prison term and/or a fine of up to $40,000. His property could also be sequestered for his non-compliance.

Mann was already issued a fine, according to Checkpoint, and the court's remaining options are prison term or seizure of property.

Continued resistance to ERA request

But Mann, in a recent report from Checkpoint, continues to resist the order from the ERA.

"I'm so pissed off. These guys are nothing more than a ****ing parasite to society," he told Checkpoint, referring to migrant advocates who supported Dhiman.

Mann noted that the ERA didn't consider that Dhiman worked under about six different managers, adding that "it doesn't matter" that he was the director of the company.

"He was reporting to the manager, not me," he said, adding that he gets "nothing" if he kept refusing to pay.

"You can send me to prison, I'll go to prison - I'm ready for it," he said.

Dhiman told Checkpoint that he welcomes the idea, stressing that he worked for Mann's store like a "prisoner."

"If he goes to prison then he will know how it feels working as a slave," the migrant worker said.

Imprisonment for non-compliance

Employers getting imprisoned for resisting a Compliance Order has never been carried out in the past, according to Checkpoint's report.

But John Wood, an advocate of migrant workers, told Checkpoint that a prison term is "warranted" because of Dhiman's failure to engage in respect of the money he owes.

Employment lawyer Barbara Buckett also told Checkpoint that non-compliance was growing more common among employers, particularly those who employer vulnerable staff.

"We've got minimum statutory requirements that they haven't met, and when they get a determination against them, these employers either disappear or just resist and resist and resist," Buckett told Checkpoint.