Christchurch eatery must pay more than $50,000 for underpaying staff
A Christchurch restaurant has been ordered to pay over $50,000 after failing to pay two staff properly.
Palace Restaurant Company Limited, known as Maxine’s Palace, was found to have breached four employment acts for not recording and paying hours, and not paying outstanding final holiday pays, public holidays and alternative holidays.
Two workers – Xiang Ru Lin, a former full-time front of house employee, and Hai Rui Chen, a former full-time chef – will receive compensation.
The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) said due to the lack of records, it was highly likely others were affected, but had not come forward.
The sole director and shareholder of Maxine’s Palace, Yi Ting Wang (known as Maxine Wang), has been ordered to pay $4000 herself.
Her business must pay a $12,000 penalty as well as nearly $24,000 to Lin and about $16,500 to Chen for wages and outstanding holiday pay.
The restaurant was bought and started by Maxine Wang and her sister, Ching Ju Wang (Wawa), after they left the restaurant they were working at due to concerns about pay and work conditions not being in line with their employment agreements.
Wawa indicated that at her previous job, she was not paid for working on public holidays and not given days off in lieu for doing so.
The ERA concluded that both Lin and Chen were vulnerable, had language difficulties and placed trust in their employer.
Lin was on a holiday visa when she began working part time at the restaurant in 2016 and she was paid for the hours she worked. After moving to full time and then to an assistant manager role, her hours were not recorded, she said.
In one instance, she said she was paid $599.98 for six days’ work. Evidence showed that on one occasion Maxine Wang told Lin that only “Kiwi businesses” complied with Holiday Act provisions.
She left in 2022 after securing an open work visa that allowed her to work elsewhere.
Chen became the restaurant’s fulltime chef in 2015 and was dismissed in 2022, which he said was because he had expressed concerns about pay for working public holidays. He was not given his final holiday pay, and underpaid for the hours he worked.
Wang told the ERA she saw her workers as “family”. She set up the restaurant to help immigrants from Taiwan and China, she said. She and her sister would help staff with visa issues, sometimes let them stay for free in their homes, and would travel to work socialise with them often.
Staff were given free midday and evening meals, and in one instance several workers were taken to Rarotonga on holiday. The restaurant paid for their accommodation and flights, Wang said.
The accountant for Maxine’s Palace said she made Wang aware of how the spending affected the restaurant’s profitability and that staffing overheads were not being managed correctly.
ERA member David G Beck said Wang’s employment breaches resulted from “both wilful blindness and a failure to take due care to apprise herself of employer responsibilities”. “I assess this was a deliberate reluctance to address minimum standards matters brought to her attention in a timely fashion,” he said.
As well as the penalty payments, Beck recommended the company gave staff employment agreements that were translated into their first language, and that agreements for casual workers included clear information about their legal leave