"Southland farm, owner to pay $215k for exploiting migrant workers,"

ERA found the business Rural Practice Ltd and the owner Reza Abdul-Jabbar, an Invercargill Imam, had breached "numerous minimum employment standards" including manipulating payslips and unlawfully deducting money from their wages.

Rural Practice Ltd was ordered to pay $145,000, and Abdul-Jabbar must pay $70,000.

Two of the three workers will each receive $10,000 of the penalties amount.

The three workers came from Indonesia to work for Rural Practice Ltd on its Invercargill dairy farm between December 2017 and February 2022.

In December 2020, one of the workers contacted the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's contact centre to complain he had not been paid the salary recorded in his employment agreement or given the number of days off he was owed each fortnight.

He also complained that his employer had taken possession of his passport and ID and kept them even though he asked for them back...