Hamilton takeaway boss used visa threat to force migrant to falsely blame partner for fight
The woman and her partner worked at Mex It Up in Chartwell.
The Indian worker was also made to work an 88-hour week and denied leaves.
An Indian migrant worker was threatened with having her visa cancelled and being sent back to India unless she signed a statement blaming her partner for a fight with their boss at a Hamilton takeaway.
Simran Kaur later told the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) the statement was untrue and that she had signed it under pressure from Puneet Kalia, who worked at Mex it Up restaurant in Chartwell and had previously been a director of the company operating it.
The statement was used in an earlier employment dispute involving Kaur's partner, Harmanpreet Singh, who had been involved in a physical altercation with Kalia outside the restaurant in June 2022.
Now, three years after Singh won his employment case, Kaur has secured her own victory against the same company, YK Foverage Limited, which has been ordered to pay her more than $30,000 for unjustified disadvantage and unpaid employment entitlements.
In an order on October 27, tribunal member Sarah Kennedy-Martin accepted Kaur's evidence that Kalia threatened to reduce her working hours or cancel her visa and send her back to India unless she made a complaint against Singh.
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The case also revealed Kaur had worked an 88-hour week, endured long stretches without days off and had more than $5,000 deducted from her final pay without justification.
Payroll records showed that in June 2022, Kaur worked 88 hours across seven consecutive days, followed by an eighth consecutive day. After one day off, she worked another 11 days without a break.
"My body is totally weak now as I have worked 12 hours a day shift without eating anything," Kaur wrote in a complaint about her working conditions.
She also said her shifts were cancelled after she submitted a medical certificate seeking time off.
Kaur had been employed as a front-of-house and customer service representative from late December 2021 or early January 2022 until March 2023. Her employment agreement required her to maintain a valid work visa.
The company, whose sole director and shareholder was Kamal Chadha, denied mistreating her. Chadha maintained the company had acted in good faith, paid Kaur correctly and resolved her concerns during a meeting in February 2023.
She argued that Kaur had made exaggerated and inconsistent claims, failed to attend rostered shifts and submitted late or backdated medical certificates. The company also said it had offered her a transfer and a pay increase when she resigned.
However, the Authority rejected the company's position that the dispute had been resolved.
Earlier fight and disputed statement
The visa threat was connected to a confrontation between Singh and Kalia outside the restaurant on 16 June 2022. The altercation subsequently became part of Singh's own employment proceedings, decided by tribunal member Sarah Blick in September 2023.
During that case, Kalia produced a signed statement from Kaur supporting his account that Singh had been the aggressor. Kaur subsequently testified she had been forced to sign the statement and that its contents were untrue. She said Kalia had threatened to cancel her work visa if she refused.
The earlier determination recorded her evidence about the threat, although it did not expressly find that every allegation in the statement was false. Police did not lay charges over the altercation.
The 2023 proceedings also raised serious questions about the company's employment records. Blick found the company appeared to have generated a second employment agreement during the investigation, containing different pay provisions and clauses permitting wage deductions.
She described the employer's evidence concerning that agreement as "wholly incredible". The tribunal ordered YK Foverage Limited to pay Singh $4,225.76 in wage and holiday arrears and injury-related compensation, plus interest.
It also found Kalia had been knowingly involved in employment standards breaches and could be held personally liable for the arrears if the company failed to pay.
More than $30,000 awarded
In Kaur's case, the tribunal found the company had unlawfully deducted $5,088.06 from her final wages, claiming it was recovering an overpayment relating to sick leave.
Despite repeated requests, the company failed to provide satisfactory calculations or evidence establishing that the money was owed. The authority ordered the company to repay the deduction, along with $4,232 for 23 cancelled shifts and $736 for four days of unpaid sick leave.
Kaur was also awarded $20,000 for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings arising from the unjustified disadvantage she suffered. The total payable to her was $30,056.06, with interest on arrears also ordered.
Kennedy-Martin also found that YK Foverage Limited had deliberately failed to provide required wage, time and leave information for more than three years.
