Worker owed $50k unlikely to be paid

Pictured is Hemal Patel at home in Papatoetoe Auckland. Patel is owed $55K in wages from his previous employer S & G Plus Auto Electrical. Photo/Doug Sherring

A former employee at a Papatoetoe car yard says he has suffered mentally and financially after working for more than a year without pay and then not receiving compensation.

Hemal Patel won his employment case last year against his former employer, Papatoetoe car yard S & G Plus Auto Electrical (S&G) in south Auckland.

Patel went 73 weeks without being paid, saying he was too afraid to make a complaint for fear of losing his job and eligibility to live in New Zealand.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) in June 2016 awarded Patel more than $50,000 however he may not receive a dollar after the company went into liquidation in November.

"I have suffered a lot both mentally and financially because of this," Patel said. "I had to borrow money from banks and my uncle in India to survive, which I still owe."

"I was hoping that I would get the money when I won the case in court, but the struggle is still not over."

Before the hearing, the ERA contacted Shanta Kumar, which it identified as the sole director and shareholder, to arrange mediation.

Kumar did not return calls and failed to attend scheduled meetings regarding the investigation, the ERA said.

With no counter-evidence given by the company, the ERA awarded Patel $40,848 in lost wages, $3267 in holiday pay, the $4207 paid by Patel to Inland Revenue and $5000 compensation - $53,322 in total.

According to the Companies Office, S&G was sold last July and then placed into liquidation on November 15 last year.

John Michael Gilbert from C & C Strategic, who was appointed as the liquidator, said he had not received documents from the company, and was in the process of trying to "tidy up the mess".

Patel felt failed by employment laws and said after the ERA judgment he obtained a further court order requiring the payment.

"I obtained judgment but the employer still refused to pay. I therefore obtained a court order requiring payment," Patel said.

"The day after receiving the court order, the employer went into voluntary liquidation appointing his own liquidator."

"The liquidator claims that there is no money available to pay me," he said.

In email correspondence with Shanta Kumar, she said she had left the company in July 2016 and that Patel had never worked there.

"I have not paid him any wages or PAYE as he was a trainee".