The Indian Weekender, 27 October 2023

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Read online www.iwk.co.nz Friday, 27 October, 2023 NEW ZEALAND 3 Exploited pizza shop worker wants former employer put in jail TOM TAYLOR/RNZ Underpaid migrant worker says he wants to send a warning to defaulters Devinder Mann, who owned several pizza stores in South Auckland, underpaid his worker Deepak Dhiman by about $98,000 over the course of eight years. In October 2022, the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) ordered Mann to pay Dhiman what he owed, but more than a year later, he is still refusing to do so. Migrant advocates and employment experts say while defiance of court orders is commonplace, putting Mann behind bars could be a precedent-setting sentence. Dhiman arrived in New Zealand in 2012, a 17-year-old from India eager to make a new life for himself. A friend helped him to get a job at a franchise pizza store in Mangere. His troubles began during his training period - a week of work where he was not paid a cent. “I didn’t know anything so I thought, okay, they must be telling me the truth,” Dhiman said. “I just kept working. I wasn’t aware that in the future I would be in problems.” Deepak’s troubles begin Dhiman spent the next eight years locked into a job that exploited him for cheap labour. Mann’s company Naanak Limited (now in liquidation) forced Dhiman to work long hours of overtime with no extra pay, and withheld holiday pay. Even for his set hours Dhiman was underpaid, starting out on $8 an hour when the minimum wage was $13.50. However, after shifting from a student visa to a work visa which was attached to the company, he felt he had no choice but to stick it out. “The thing is, he promised when he hired me that he would help me get permanent residency in New Zealand. “[In 2015] I was already working But by 2020, it had become clear that Mann was not going to help him gain permanent residency, and Dhiman left the job. there for three years. I didn’t want to quit because I had already given my three years to him, and if I left, if I went somewhere else, then I [would] have to start it from the bottom.” In 2019, Mann sold one of his shops to another employee and Dhiman continued working there, scared his visa might otherwise get cancelled. But by 2020, it had become clear that Mann was not going to help him gain permanent residency, and Dhiman left the job. He became depressed and considered going home to his family. “I didn’t want to be here crying and sitting in the room and talking to myself. They said, ‘Okay, just come back, and we will see what happens next’.” However, when a friend suggested he talk with migrant rights advocate Sunny Sehgal, Dhiman had a change of heart. “Suddenly I realised if I go back home to my country, he won’t know what he has done wrong to me.” Dhiman and Sehgal started pursuing the unpaid wages and holiday pay owed to Dhiman. • Continued on Page 8
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The Indian Weekender, 27 October 2023

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