{"id":505562,"date":"2026-07-02T03:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/505562\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T03:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:53:09","slug":"kiwifruit-company-dosanjh-horticulture-limited-and-director-to-pay-135k-for-labour-breaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/505562\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwifruit company Dosanjh Horticulture Limited and director to pay $135k for labour breaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

What were the breaches? <\/p>\n

MBIE said the case involved a wage \u201cbanking\u201d arrangement that resulted in the workers not receiving all of their lawful entitlements. <\/p>\n

The company failed to keep accurate employment records and calculate leave entitlements. <\/p>\n

Workers with contracts guaranteeing them minimum hours were routinely required to work unpaid hours to offset time they had previously been paid for but not worked, MBIE said. <\/p>\n

The amount of arrears owed to the four workers was $61,312. DHL agreed to pay it before the ERA hearing. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe authority said $20,000 of the penalties should be paid directly to the affected workers. Photo \/ Bay of Plenty Times<\/p>\n

MBIE said the Labour Inspectorate became aware of the breaches after the workers complained to Zespri<\/a>. <\/p>\n

After the Inspectorate\u2019s investigation, Zespri cancelled DHL\u2019s Compliance Assessment Verification. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis made it impossible for the company to operate in the kiwifruit industry because Zespri would not market any fruit from orchards for which DHL had supplied labour,\u201d MBIE said. <\/p>\n

\u2018Serious consequences\u2019<\/p>\n

The Labour Inspectorate\u2019s lead inspector for strategic alignment, Kevin Finnegan, said the ERA decision highlighted the importance of employers meeting their legal obligations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis company and those who owned it are well known in the kiwifruit industry, which makes their flouting of minimum employment standards all the more unacceptable,\u201d Finnegan said. <\/p>\n

He said the workers were \u201cvulnerable\u201d and were entitled to be paid correctly and to have accurate employment records maintained. <\/p>\n

Finnegan said the failure to comply with New Zealand\u2019s employment standards had \u201cserious consequences\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot only did they lose the ability to operate in the kiwifruit sector, they have also been ordered to pay significant penalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should serve as a warning to others in the industry,\u201d Finnegan said. <\/p>\n

Authority member Sarah Kennedy-Martin said the breaches were serious and affected the migrant workers over an extended period.<\/p>\n

She said one worker was made to pay a premium of $4500 for his employment with the company.<\/p>\n

Kennedy-Martin said the workers were in a vulnerable position because their visas were tied to DHL. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe workers\u2019 dependency on the employer was high, and the employer controlled all aspects of the employment relationship. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis included the structuring of payroll and record-keeping systems to obscure underpayments, coupled with unlawful deductions and failure to meet basic entitlements such as sick leave and public holiday pay,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What were the breaches? MBIE said the case involved a wage \u201cbanking\u201d arrangement that resulted in the workers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[247763,252121,49653,95,1558,27252,6120,1656,57104,3936,91587,1122,2082,3011,305,85476,2454,23553,6721,541,3429,111,43,139,69,19719,2744,11422,34703,61,36008,4576,4478],"class_list":["post-505562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-247763","tag-135k","tag-affecting","tag-and","tag-been","tag-breaches","tag-breaching","tag-company","tag-credentials","tag-director","tag-dosanjh","tag-employment","tag-for","tag-four","tag-have","tag-horticulture","tag-industry","tag-kiwifruit","tag-labour","tag-limited","tag-migrant","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ordered","tag-pay","tag-standards","tag-stripped","tag-to","tag-vulnerable","tag-work","tag-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}