A Christchurch food distributor already ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for underpaying and mistreating four workers has been hit with another $60,000 bill, taking the total liability arising from the case to nearly $702,000.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has ordered Fiji Food Distributors NZ Limited (FFDL), now in liquidation, and its director Ameer Ali to contribute $60,000 towards the workers’ legal costs.

In his judgment on September 4, ERA member Peter van Keulen said the unusually high costs award reflected an “exceptional” case involving evidential complexity and “obstructive behaviour” by the company and Ali.

It is the latest addition to a mounting bill stemming from the treatment of four men who worked at Krazy Price Mart, a Christchurch store selling imported Fijian food and groceries as well as prepared meals and snacks.

The four workers – Siddanth Prasad, Nishal Nikesh Lal, Amit Verma and Mukeshwar Prasad – told ERA they generally worked at least six days a week and about 10 hours a day.

The FFDL disputed that account, saying the men generally worked 40-hour weeks and had signed timesheets recording their hours. But the ERA sided with the workers after considering evidence including independent witnesses, GPS records, till data, messages and photographs.

It found that employment agreements and timesheets showing mostly 40-hour weeks were “incorrect and a fiction”. The workers hadn't been properly paid for all the hours they worked, had not received paid breaks and had not received their correct holiday and leave entitlements.

The resulting wage arrears were substantial – $85,918.52 for Siddanth Prasad, $136,802.31 for Lal, $161,552.59 for Verma and $72,090.93 for Mukeshwar Prasad.

Together the four were owed $456,364.35, the ERA ruled last year. Each worker was also awarded $32,000 in compensation, adding another $128,000 to the company's bill for unjustifiably dismissing them.

Their employment ended in September 2021 when FDDL sold Krazy Price Mart. The ERA found the company had not adequately consulted the workers before the sale and their resulting dismissals were unjustified.

Ali was subsequently found to have been personally involved in the breaches of minimum employment standards. In April, the company was also ordered to pay a $50,000 penalty.

That brought the orders from the case to $642,364.35 before the latest dispute over legal costs. The workers sought full indemnity costs, arguing the way FDDL and Ali had conducted the case had substantially increased the amount of work required.

They said the respondents had caused delays by refusing to engage in mediation, taking time over instructing lawyers and providing evidence, raising difficulties over the timing of the investigation and failing to comply with directions for exchanging evidence.

ERA member Van Keulen largely accepted those arguments. “This is an exceptional case in terms of the evidential complexity and the obstructive behaviour of FFDL and Mr Ali,” he ruled.

The normal starting point for costs would have been $25,000. But Van Keulen increased that by $35,000 because of factors including rejected settlement offers, the complexity of the case and the respondents’ conduct.

He stopped short of awarding full indemnity costs, saying the threshold for doing so was particularly high.

The resulting $60,000 costs award brings the various amounts ordered in the case to $702,364.35. In this month's ruling, FDDL and Ali are jointly and severally liable for the $60,000 costs award.