Kiwifruit contractor fined for breaches

Kiwifruit employer fined $2000.

A temporary contractor has been ordered to pay $2000 for breaching her obligations as an employer while hiring backpackers to pick kiwifruit flowers.

Mary-Anne Toki admitted she failed to provide the nine workers with written employment agreements, failed to keep holiday and leave records, did not pay them minimum wage and give final pay, and made unlawful deductions without written consent.

Labour inspector Kerri Ahomiro initially sought to recover unpaid holiday pay but withdrew the claim after Toki, a sickness beneficiary, paid them.

She employed the back-packers to carry out strip-picking of kiwifruit flowers in the Far North, the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) heard. Seven of them worked one day and two worked for two days. None were informed of their pay rates before they started work.

Bags of flowers they picked were weighed and the workers were paid at the rate of $5.90 per kilogram of flowers picked.

Their payslips showed some of them were penalised through deductions made from their wages for alleged "improper" picking.

Toki said "improper picking" meant flowers could not be used so workers were not paid.

She said she had never employed anyone before and just engaged the backpackers to help her for a few days because she had too much work to meet her contractual obligations. It was a casual short-term arrangement so she did not view herself as an employer, Toki told the ERA.

She told the Labour inspector she did not believe she was required to pay them because they were "in training" and their performance was "below standard".

Authority member Rachel Larmer said although Toki was involved in multiple breaches, she expressed genuine remorse and had taken steps to pay the arrears. Another mitigating factor is her full co-operation with the Labour inspector and her decision to educate herself and others in her family about the various employment law obligations on an employer, Mr Larmer said.

She accepted it was the first time Toki had employed others and was unaware of her statutory obligations as an employer.

"Whilst that is not an excuse, Ms Toki is not in the same category as other temporary employers in the kiwifruit industry who each season ignore their statutory obligations in order to obtain an unfair labour market advantage for themselves," she said.

Toki will pay the $2000 penalty at $45 a week.