The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) fine follows a previous decision ordering Mother’s Thai, which trades as Diamond Thai Massage, and its owner Janya Duangjai to pay five workers more than $230,000 in wage arrears.
More than 55 separate breaches of minimum employment standards between November 2020 and 2023 were found by a Labour Inspectorate investigation in 2024.
ERA member Peter van Keulen said, although Mother’s Thai conceded it breached employment standards and agreed to the amounts owed to the workers, there was no evidence the workers had been paid and Mother’s Thai was no longer operating, he said.
He ordered Mother’s Thai to pay a fine of $140,000 and Duangjai a further $70,000. Of this, $21,000 was to be paid to each of the five workers.
Labour Inspectorate migrant exploitation manager Natalie Gardiner said the ERA decision showed enforcement action "can still be taken and that directors can be held personally accountable for serious breaches of employment law," despite structural changes to the company's ownership and shareholdings.
"This was a particularly egregious example of migrant exploitation and the significant penalties imposed by the authority reflect the seriousness of the harm caused to these workers," Gardiner said.
"This outcome follows a detailed and lengthy investigation by the senior labour inspector, made more complex by the employer’s failure to maintain accurate records and the workers’ understandable fear about speaking up.
"Employers who deliberately underpay staff, charge unlawful premiums or ignore basic employment obligations should expect strong enforcement action by labour inspectors. These types of practices have no place in New Zealand.”
The investigation, completed in September 2024, found the business failed to pay the minimum wage, made unlawful deductions and charged employees a premium for their jobs.
Van Keuken said the workers had limited knowledge about their employment rights and little support when it came to questioning their pay and other entitlements.
"It appears that Mother's Thai, through Ms Duangjai, took advantage of the employee's vulnerability," Keulen said.
Janya Duangjai’s partner, Richard, spoke to The Press on her behalf in a previous article about Mother’s Thai’s wage arrears order.
In The Press article, he claimed the Labour Inspectorate’s calculations were wrong, the company could not afford to make the payment or fight the decision.
-With RNZ
