Last week a construction company called Best Homes NZ Ltd was ordered to pay approximately $32,000 in back wages to three carpenters it had employed in 2022, but not paid a cent.
That figure includes holiday pay and interest.
Andrew Gane, Member of the Employment Relations Authority (ERA), had made a preliminary determination six months earlier, rejecting Best Homes’ director’s assertion that the men were contractors.
We suspect that the carpenters Messrs Fan, Yu and Tan would have been happy with contractor status as long as they’d been paid, but they weren’t.
Perhaps director Mr Wu didn’t know how to run a business but it appears that he was good at making excuses.
Anyway, we hope Best Homes NZ Ltd makes enough money out of the building project pictured above to pay its former employees, otherwise under Section 142W of the Employment Relations Act 2000 Mr Wu and/or his wife could be personally liable.
Tristam Price, Editor
Fists fly in the field, Authority told (13 September)
Tana could be on the hook for back wages (25 July)
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