"Migrant workers’ Kiwi dream shattered", 22 February 2025

...[Thi Dung Tran]... and six other women have been jointly awarded compensation of more than $230,000 by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA), which has found that they were “unjustifiably dismissed and disadvantaged” by their employer at a Wellington nail salon.

Tran is one of at least nine women who came to New Zealand on an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV), recruited from Vietnam as nail technicians, but whose lives were upended by their former employer, Huynh.

The AEWV scheme, implemented by the last government to address a post-Covid boom, allowed employers easier access to overseas labour. However, media reports and a Human Rights Commission review have described widespread exploitation under the scheme.

Cases have been seen across the motu, including labouring jobs in Nelson and Tasman, hospitality or retail-related businesses in Hanmer Springs, and an orchard in the Bay of Plenty.

Last week, seven of the women who took Huynh to the ERA, each received decisions which ordered Huynh to pay them between $27,000 and $37,000 in compensation for lost wages, compensation for hurt and humiliation, and a penalty for breaching the employment agreement.

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