Flipino tradies who worked on Auckland’s City Rail Link owed thousands, union says

First Union organiser Mikee Santos (far right) represents a group of Filipino construction workers, who say their former employer Rehua Reo Contracting owes them weeks of wages. Photo / RNZ

By Lucy Xia of RNZ

A group of Filipino construction workers say they are owed thousands of dollars in wages, including for time some of them have spent on Auckland’s City Rail Link project.

First Union, which represents eight of about 70 workers, says their former employer, Rehua Reo Contracting, effectively forced them to quit by stopping wages late last year.

Some say they recently became residents through the Resident Visa 2021 scheme.

On average, they say they were owed three weeks’ wages and holiday pay, about $6000, but some were owed more than $8000.

At least four of the men had worked for Rehua Reo Contracting on the joint Auckland Council-Government City Rail Link project.

The High Court confirmed IRD had filed to liquidate the company in November 2021, but hearings have been adjourned several times and an outcome is pending.

The directors of the company are listed on the Companies Office as Phillip Andrew Leigh Ngawaka and Melanie Catanuto.

First Union organiser and the co-ordinator of the Union Network of Migrants (UNEMIG), Mikee Santos, said while the company had been dropping hints through social media that it was restructuring and going to liquidate, there were never formal communications to the workers about redundancy.

Santos said its eight members came back to work in January after Christmas, only to find themselves without wages for almost a month.

When workers asked the company for an explanation, what they received were empty promises of pay, and no answers to whether they will be made redundant.

“The company made no communications, not even to the union about how they’re going to pay their obligations — weeks of unpaid wages, and their holiday pay, their final pay,” he said.

The first time Santos heard back from one of the directors. Phillip Ngawaka, was a day after RNZ approached the company for comment.

Santos said when he asked for an explanation of the unpaid wages, Ngawaka said “there’s no more money”.

The company has not responded to RNZ’s requests for comment.

Debts

Santos said most of the group of 70 workers have been burdened by debt and have been forced to find new jobs.

He said the timing was also terrible because workers had only come back from Christmas, which traditionally was a time for sending significant amounts of money back to family for Filipino workers.

While others still owed debts from the money they spent on immigration advisers to get residency — about $7000.

Steelworker Marcial Bajado said he was owed about three weeks of wages, which included work done on the CRL project.

Bajado said it had been a tough time financially.

“All of my payments become defaulted and I can’t even buy some food for my kids. I have to borrow money from my friends,” he said.

“That’s the worst part of my life here in NZ, not getting paid for three weeks, until now I didn’t get over it, because I still owe money to my friends,” he said.

Elbert Paymalanin said it had been sad and disappointing to still be waiting to be paid for work he did in December and early January, including work on the CRL project.

Another worker, William Carisma, said he was not paid for the work he did on the CRL as a steel fixer in December and was forced to find a new job.

Carisma said he had used up most of his savings to pay rent during that period.

He said when he spoke to the company in January to demand his wages, he was told it did not have money to pay him because it was not getting paid by the contractors above it.

CRL spokesman Nick Smith confirmed Rehua Reo Contracting was a secondary contractor on the project late last year.

Smith said the company was contracted to the Link Alliance’s subcontractor, Steel & Tube.

Stats NZ figures show the construction industry is experiencing a downturn. Photo / Michael Craig

Smith said they had met and continued to meet contractual and financial obligations with Steel & Tube, including payment for works completed.

He said they understood Steel & Tube had paid for works completed by Rehua Reo Contracting.

Steel & Tube chief executive Mark Malpass said it had met all financial obligations to its subcontractor JD Holdings Ltd, which owned Rehua Reo Contracting.

Malpass said they were no longer working with JD Holdings on the CRL project.

Bryan, who worked as a construction manager for Rehua Reo Contracting, said he was owed almost 100 hours of wages in January that included a day’s work on CRL Mt Eden, doing site inspections.

For Bryan, supporting family back in the Philippines was an obligation, even when he was struggling himself after weeks of no wages.

He had to borrow money to send back to his family in January.

Eventually, he had no option but to leave, and has now started his own small business, employing some of the other workers who have been indirectly made redundant.

He said the downturn in the construction industry was also making him rethink his future in New Zealand.

“The security of work ... I’m so concerned about that, because I don’t think the future of construction is doing good, I think it’s going down”

Ronnie, who worked as a steel fixer, said going for a month without pay in January was stressful on his family.

“My wife is sick, she has kidney failure, and I’m the only one working,” he said.

“And that time that I had no work, I am stressful and my wife and daughter were really angry because almost one month [without pay].”

Ronnie’s family had only recently received residency, and he said he still had debts to pay for his wife’s previous medical bills.

Ronnie said he tried talking to the director of the company to ask for his wages but said he was told: “I don’t care anywhere you want to complain, I don’t care.”

He said he was also told the company had been sold.

Union calls for action on ‘cowboys’

First Union is concerned the supply chain for government projects is lacking transparency and oversight in terms of ensuring workers’ rights.

Santos said there should be more accountability from the government.

“Because the money is coming from the Government, they have to ensure all the contractors, the [subcontractor] underneath the main contractors, or the whole supply chain should be acting ethically and fairly, with respect,” Santos said.

He also wanted the Government to hold offending companies accountable.

“The Government, MBIE has to intervene and to remind these cowboys in the industry that they cannot do this,” he said.

“Their accreditation [to hire migrant workers] should be reviewed and revoked if necessary.”

Meanwhile, Stats NZ figures show the construction industry is experiencing a downturn.

The volume of building work done fell 1.6 per cent in the December quarter on the previous three months, as house building fell 2.6 per cent more than offsetting a 0.4 per cent rise in non-residential buildings.

It was the first fall in the volume of work since the September 2021 quarter, when Auckland was in lockdown for five weeks.

Santos said he was concerned there might be more construction companies planning to liquidate who were not following the proper redundancy procedures.

He added he was worried there might be more similar cases the union was not aware of, because union membership was low among migrant workers.

– RNZ