“Mansion-building firm charged worker thousands for job and sacked him a week later”

An Auckland construction company used a Singapore agency to charge a migrant thousands of dollars in fees to get a job, and sacked him after a week.

The Employment Relations Authority heard 6 Meter Homes was accredited to recruit dozens of migrants for its two firms, but was likely to have known and profited from the agency charging an $11,000 job premium.

The Rosedale-based business was ordered to pay more than $46,000 in compensation, fines and lost wages.

One of its directors, Wenbin Hua, had to pay $6000 of that for seeking a premium from migrant worker, Shunxu Zhou.

Zhou was charged a premium to get a carpenter's job with 6 Meter but he was sacked a week after starting.

He was recruited from Singapore, along with at least four others, and paid the equivalent of about NZD$11,700 over 2022 and 2023 to get a job and visa.

"The amount of money Mr Zhou was required to pay was significant from his perspective," said authority member Nicola Craig in her decision…

Hua denied any relationship or profit-share with the Singaporean agent although he referred to Mr B as his friend.

He and 6 Meter denied they received any money for Zhou's employment…