A kiwifruit company that didn't properly pay employees or meet employment obligations has only paid $28,000 of the $226,000 it owed and the boss has now declared himself bankrupt.
Freemind Enterprize Limited and its director Gurmail Lally were in June last year ordered by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) to pay $161,343.67 for money owed to workers and $65,000 in penalties for breaching employment law.
This followed a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) investigation that revealed the company did not have written employment agreements, wage, time or holiday records for 121 employees that were hired to harvest kiwifruit in the Bay of Plenty between 2009 and 2013.
The company further failed to provide these workers with holiday pay or time-and-a-half pay for working a public holiday. One employee was paid less than the minimum wage.
In a further ERA determination, delivered on March 31 but publicly released this week, the authority said the company had paid $28,000 in to the Crown's bank account as of March 27. At the time the decision was released, the company was still registered.