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February 17, 2022
Lax enforcement bonanza for bad bosses
Peter Verschaffelt
Posted On February 17, 2022
Download AudioA former immigration minister says lax enforcement is allowing big retailers to exploit immigrants.
Tuariki Delamere says kiwi workers are in short supply at Auckland supermarkets and box retailers because people with residency and citizenship won’t work for the conditions offered.
The immigration consultant says the employers use labour-hire companies to man their tills.
“They love this thing where they’ve got compliant temporary workers from India or China or anywhere else who are desperate to get on the ladder to residency because they get exploited. These big companies say ‘It’s nothing to do with us, we contracted a labour-hire company.” The labour-hire companies are these screwing people over and the government allows it to continue,” Mr Delamere says.
He says the hospitality sector is also rife with wage theft from foreign workers who are illegally being denied written contracts.
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