Harsher penalties could be on the way for exploitative employers like an Indian restaurant which allegedly paid workers less than a third of the minimum wage, Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse says.
The restaurant chain was alleged last week to have paid staff about $265 a week for working up to 70 hours - less than $4 an hour.
Some 15 companies linked to the restaurant, which has not been named while the matter is before the Employment Relations Authority, could face a maximum penalty of $20,000 for each offence under the Employment Relations Act.
Mr Woodhouse told TVNZ's Q+A programme this morning that those penalties "could well be" too soft.
He was working with Labour Minister Simon Bridges to review the penalties.
"I think it's very important to send a signal that being in New Zealand is a privilege and that there is a rule of law in this country that needs to be obeyed."
Mr Woodhouse said the current approach to tackling migrant labour exploitation had not worked.
"We have had a handful of charges laid, but I think we're not seeing the extent of the problem, particularly here in Auckland."
He said there were already harsh penalties under the Immigration Act for employers that exploited unlawful migrants.
"But one of the problems we've found is that those [workers] who are unlawful - they may be working outside the terms of their visa - are very reluctant to speak up. So as a consequence, that law probably hasn't been as effective as it could be."
Mr Woodhouse said he had instructed officials to turn their attention to employers rather than employees.
"What that will mean for the employees is that they will be able to speak up, confident that they won't be punished, perhaps by deportation or other sanctions."
He said the role of communication and social media was important.
"It's about making sure that we can get to those workers and cut across the things that sometimes employers are telling them, which are simply not true, about what would happen if they did speak up."
Under the Immigration Act, employers can be jailed for up to seven years and fined $100,000 for exploiting illegal migrant workers.
Mr Woodhouse would introduce a bill in about month that would extend the penalties to the exploitation of legal migrants also.
"Because most employers don't really distinguish between who they're discriminating against."
