Fishing company fined for failing to pay full wages to vulnerable Indonesian crew members

Friday, 3 April 2020

The Pacific Explorer was one of the vessels on which the crew worked.

Hawke's Bay Seafoods has been ordered to pay a $40,000 fine and $25,000 to vulnerable Indonesian crew members who were underpaid for working on its fishing boats.

The victims were six Indonesian nationals employed on fishing vessels Mutiara and Pacific Explorer between 2013 and 2017

The crew members did not receive minimum entitlements regarding annual holidays, public holidays and alternative holidays.

The matter went to the Employment Relations Authority last year.

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The crew members worked on the fishing vessel Mutiara, pictured, between 2013 and 2017

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Hawke's Bay Seafoods denied the claims, saying it kept the required records in written form or in a manner that allowed the information to be easily accessed and converted into written form.

None of the crew attended the hearing, which was attended by a labour Inspector. Accountant Rod Te Terte represented the company.

The Labour Inspector said the company had failed to keep records in accordance with the Holidays Act 2003 and the Employment Relations Act 2000 (the Act).

The Authority found that the company's timesheets were deficient and contained numerous inaccuracies and omissions, to which the company could offer no explanation.

The authority said the company's position was 'untenable' and it had been 'unable to characterise the pattern of work performed by the crewman as falling within circumstances that permit an employer to avoid strict compliance with the obligation to keep a record the number of hours worked each day in a pay period and the pay for the hours'.

Hawke's Bay Seafoods was 'required to accurately document any additional hours worked beyond those expressed in the employment agreement to enable it to comply with its general obligation under [The Employment Relations Act].' and 'the monthly timesheets do not satisfy that obligation'.

The Authority found nine separate and ongoing omissions/failures by the company that resulted in 41 separate breaches of the either the Employment Relations Act or the Holiday's Act.

These included failing to keep compliant wage and time records by failing to record the number of hours worked each day in a pay period and the pay for the hours for all six crewmen, failing to keep compliant holiday and leave records, failing to pay time and a half for public holidays, and failing to supply records to the inspector.

'Given [the company's] heightened understanding of minimum standards and its commitment to the Labour Inspector, it is difficult to understand why subsequent compliance with minimum standards did not occur. HBS's explanation that a payroll employee erred in ensuring minimum entitlements were calculated and paid is not supported by corroborative evidence and I do not accept it,' said Authority member Michelle Ryan in her recently released finding.

She was unwilling to find that the company had deliberately misled the inspector but said its 'overall approach to the provision of records seriously hampered the Labour Inspector's ability to discharge his duties'.

The breaches were serious, she said, and Hawke's Bay Seafoods was aware of its employment standards obligations, and it failed to ensure these were complied with.

'The crewmen were vulnerable migrant workers. The harm caused as a result of the recording failures means crew members were deprived of financial entitlements and the sum of money owed to individual crewman would likely be significant to each of them,' she said.

She fined the company $40,000 and ordered it to pay arrears of $25,002.34 to the Labour Inspectorate to be held in trust on behalf of the crew members who are owed monies.

Hawke's Bay Seafoods was purchased last year by Kahungunu Asset Holding Company Ltd., which manages assets on behalf of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated, and is now operating as Takitimu Seafoods.