"ERA fines forestry company $35K, bans from hiring migrants for underpaying workers", 19 December 2018

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has fined a North Island forestry company $35,000 for paying less than minimum wage and banned it from hiring migrants.

The ERA found Silviculture Solutions Ltd (SSL) used "an illegal system of calculating pay", where the workers were paid only for what the company deemed "productive hours"... 

"The four workers received between $241-$4,846 below their minimum wage entitlement, for more than a year," the Labour Inspectorate's Kevin Finnegan said. "...SSL paid them for what they deemed 'productive hours' only – which the company calculated as the amount of trees needed to be pruned or planted, divided by the expected hours to do them."

... the ERA also determined the company benefited by as much as $1.6 million over six years, as SSL's own accountant identified.

"What would have made it more difficult on these workers was that about half of SSL's workforce usually comprised of migrant staff on 'tied' visas, meaning their visas allowed them to only work for SSL," Finnegan said...