Kiwifruit Boss Tarun Gautam Charged An Indian Migrant $23K Just To Get A Job. Now He's Been Fined $40K

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An Indian-origin New Zealand horticulture director has been fined $40,000 after five Indian migrant workers were systematically underpaid, denied holiday pay, and, in one case, made to hand over more than $23,000 to secure his job.

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The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found Tarun Gautam, sole director of Kiwi fruit company Hariom Horticulture Limited, now in liquidation, had breached four separate employment laws. 

His workers were on visas that locked them to Hariom and only Hariom, which Authority Member Claire English noted made them particularly vulnerable. They couldn't walk. They couldn't easily complain. And for the most part, they weren't paid what they were owed.

Kevin Finnegan, Lead Inspector Strategic Alignment for the Labour Inspectorate, had a message for other companies after the ruling. 

“The vast majority of orchard owners and labour hire operators working in the kiwifruit industry comply with employment standards and take good care of their workers. But there are some who believe it is acceptable to exploit vulnerable people to gain unfair competitive advantage,” said Finnegan.

Indian Migrant Workers Paid Less Than The Minimum Wage

The case against Gautam was built from his own records. Labour Inspector Robert Hall cross-referenced Hariom's payroll data against actual bank transfers to employees. Hall found three workers - Raman Shekhar, Jagmeet Singh, and Jai Shiva - were being paid less than the minimum wage. 

Shiva was owed $4,099.50, Singh $2,742.90 and Shekhar $1,362. The shortfalls weren't rounding errors. They were the result of Hariom paying Singh a flat 30 hours a week regardless of what he actually worked.

The timesheets also came in for scrutiny. Gautam produced payslips when asked for records but couldn't account for the daily hours worked. The law requires employers to keep this information.

 Gautam’s explanation changed depending on who was asking. He told the Inspector the timesheets were in boxes at the office. Then, that they were lost in a house move. He then claimed that they'd fallen out the back of his ute and subsequently passed the buck saying it was the responsibility of a senior employee, Phoolmeet Kaur. 

The ERA dismissed all of it. The obligation to keep records sits with the employer, she found, not a staff member. Gautam's shifting stories didn't come close to satisfying her that the records had ever existed in the form required.

Indian Migrant Worker Paid To Get Job

The most serious aspect of the case centred on Jagmeet Singh, who told the Authority that Gautam had asked him to make payments before he could start work. 

Bank records showed Singh transferred money from accounts in both India and New Zealand directly into accounts bearing Gautam or his family member's names, a total of $23,324. 

Gautam's response was that the payments were actually repayments of a loan Singh's father had taken from Gautam's father. 

The ERA didn't buy it and found four of the five payments were unlawful premiums - money paid to get a job, which is prohibited under the Wages Protection Act. 

Because three of the transfers were made in Indian rupees between Indian accounts, New Zealand law couldn't reach them. But the final payment, $11,276 sent from a New Zealand account, fell squarely within jurisdiction and must be repaid, the ERA concluded.

Kiwi Fruit Boss Has 28 Days To Pay Fine

Gautam didn't show up to the hearing in Tauranga in October last year. His lawyers had already walked off the case. He phoned beforehand and said he had the witness statements ready to file, but then didn't file them. 

After the hearing, he emailed to say health issues had prevented his attendance and attached a medical certificate recommending a four-month postponement. The Authority extended the timetable anyway, giving him extra time to respond. He didn't respond.

English ordered $5,000 of the penalty to go directly to each of the five workers. Singh gets an extra $5,000 on top of that, in recognition of the premium he was forced to pay. The remaining amount, including the Labour Inspector's $71.56 filing fee, goes to the Crown. Gautam has 28 days to pay.

The Authority also noted that Gautam and Hariom are facing separate proceedings involving similar allegations about other migrant workers.