The Indian Weekender, 27 October 2023

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