A cleaning business owner and her partner must pay more than $8400 after failing to comply with an Employment Relations Authority order to pay an employee their minimum wage entitlements.
The order follows a previous authority investigation in May 2023, which found Maunga Horepa Contractors Limited in Christchurch owed the worker arrears, penalties, and costs.
Those initial awards remained unpaid by the company. The worker then sought leave from the authority to pursue the money directly from directors Gabriela Dina Nascimento De Souza Godoy Moreira and Alex Sandro De Menezes Godoy Moreira.
Authority member David Beck ruled last week that both directors were personally involved in the breaches of failing to pay wages due and statutory entitlements.
Beck noted the employee was a vulnerable migrant worker at the time of her employment, who was seeking to gain New Zealand permanent residency.
