Migrant felt boss was blackmailing her

Jacqueline Sydow had to pay her own wages. Photo / Paul Estcourt

An immigrant who was offered a job with a $55,000 salary says she was shocked when her employer allegedly asked her to pay her own taxes and wages in order to stay legally in New Zealand, an employment court has heard.

Jacqueline Sydow, originally from South Africa, has taken her employers Pierre Le Noel and Executive Recruiters International Limited to the Employment Relations Authority for allegedly making her obtain New Zealand permanent residency by fraudulent means.

She said she was asked to pay the company so that it can pay her, in order to deceive Immigration officials into thinking that she was being employed at $55,000, as an associate consultant which was the minimum salary for her to meet skilled migration requirements. Ms Sydow's employers are denying the allegations and Mr le Noel claims she had full knowledge and was in agreement of the arrangement between them.

"I felt like I was being blackmailed by Pierre into working for nothing on the basis that he held all the power in respect of my PR application. Having contacted Immigration New Zealand, I knew that leaving this job would severely limit my options and may result in me having to leave the country," Ms Sydow told the court.

"Pierre then went on to suggest that I make a payment to the company equivalent to my gross salary each month, and then the company would pay me my net salary, with the balance going to IRD for PAYE. This was to happen each month going forward. Effectively I would not only be unpaid during this time, but I would also be paying my own tax from my savings."

Ms Sydow came to New Zealand on a visitor's permit in September 2008, and came in contact with Mr le Noel after responding to a job vacancy advertisement placed by the company for a research associate.

She obtained a work permit with the $55,000 job offer, and started work on January 19 last year.

But within a week after she commenced working, the employer gave her a new contract - dated January 18 - which stated that she would be paid by commission only. "I was shocked to say the least ... I took the contract away but did not feel at all comfortable signing it because it would have meant my immigration application would have been made on false grounds."

According to court documents, she was paid for four months, between February and May last year and then received only commission thereafter.

Mr le Noel said in his brief of evidence that Ms Sydow "understood" and "was agreeable" to work on that basis.

"I did not consider that her employment conditions had changed substantively and was very mindful that she very much wished, and in fact needed, employment to continue her residency," he said.

"At the point that Jacqueline started work ... we had to alter the original offer or not employ her at all ... she indicated that she understood this and accepted the different terms of employment and those terms were the only terms she worked under until her employment ended."