Christchurch woman helps migrant worker reduced to eating dog food

Friday, 23 August 2019

A Christchurch woman assisting a Filipino migrant worker relying on charity parcels and boiled dog bones for food says Kiwis should not ignore worker exploitation.

Migrant worker Kim Villaranda says he could never have managed without the assistance of Christchurch woman Sarah Brunton who he met when he carpeted her garage.

Sarah Brunton met Kim Villaranda when he carpeted her garage in November and became concerned after he spoke of working 20 hours without a break. 'I couldn't look the other way.'

Villaranda says he has felt suicidal at times and he is deeply grateful for Brunton's help in laying official complaints with authorities, and for trying to find him a new job after his work visa expired.

'It's a blessing that someone hears my problems because I'm just nobody here in New Zealand, I'm just a worker, just a migrant and I don't know your law.'

Sarah Brunton (right) began helping Filipino migrant worker Kim Villaranda (left) after he carpeted the garge of her Christchurch home. She says the complaints process has been much harder and take a lot longer than she ever anticipated.

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The Philippines Embassy is so worried about the level of worker exploitation it plans to open a labour office here before the end of the year, and that will be among labour issues discussed when New Zealand and Philippines government officials meet next week.

Villaranda, a qualified plumber, has complained to the Labour Inspectorate about his treatment by Derek Chiu, owner of Christchurch company ULS Limited which trades as Urban Flooring, and to the Immigration Advisors Authority over the handling of his work visa which expired in December.

Although hired as an assistant warehouse manager, Villaranda says he worked long hours laying carpet, and Chiu fobbed him off when he protested.

'He said just do it, if you want a job, if you don't, just go home.'

Villaranda is on a visitor visa while he looks for a new job, and he hopes Immigration NZ allows him to stay while he pursues a pay claim against his former employer.

He wants to continue working in New Zealand to make a better life for his wife and three daughters in the Philippines, and to repay the $15,000 he borrowed from an uncle for recruitment fees to come here.

But he is struggling financially, receiving food parcels from the City Mission and boiling up meat bones sold as supermarket pet food.

'I don't want to be in this situation because I came here to work.'

Villaranda says it's a big thing for him to speak up and many other migrant workers were too scared to do so because they were being threatened by their bosses and feared losing their jobs.

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment says anecdotally, only a small percentage of migrant worker exploitation cases referred to the Labour Inspectorate come from members of the public.

'I don't want to sound like a hero, but it needs to be stopped.'

Chiu says he had employed about five or six migrant workers over recent years and paid all their entitlements.

However, he admits workers were paid in cash for overtime and he had not deducted tax from that money.

Filipino migrant worker Kim Villaranda says he is deeply grateful for Sarah Brunton's help in laying official complaints with authorities.

He had been interviewed by the Labour Inspectorate and says that while he 'may not have the best record' he had been 'trying to follow every rule' since last year.

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment says tackling exploitation of migrant workers in the construction industry is challenging because there are so many different trades involved.

Helping Villaranda has been an eye-opening experience for Brunton, but she does not begrudge the hours devoted to his cause and says others should step up when they see injustice.

'There's a lot of people out there that don't want to admit that our neighbour, the guy we see picking up the mail and who we exchange pleasantries with, is actually exploiting people.

'It's uncomfortable, it's hard, but it has to be exposed because it's not right.'

Do you know more? contact Amanda.Cropp@stuff.co.nz

Philippines ambassador Gary Domingo appreciates Kiwi good samaritans like Brunton.

Philippines ambassador Gary Domingo says many Filipino migrant workers are reluctant to complain about abusive employers and he fears that situation will be exacerbated if migrant worker numbers are restricted.

The embassy has received 13 official reports of migrant abuse over the past 18 months, but based on community contacts and social media posts, he believes that is the tip of the iceberg.

Contracts signed in the Philippines being substituted with new ones on arrival, underpayment of salaries and benefits, illegal job terminations, over charging for pastoral care, and bullying and intimidation are common complaints.

Ways to better protect the 22,000 Filipino migrant workers employed in New Zealand will be covered when labour officials from both countries meet on Wednesday and the opening of a Philippines Overseas Labour Office (POLO) in Wellington is on the agenda.

New Zealand is currently covered by the POLO in Canberra, but Domingo says having one here would result in faster verification of contracts and more support for exploited workers.

First Union general secretary Dennis Maga says the pay gap between migrant workers and their Kiwi counterparts can be as much as $5 an hour, and that needs to change.

First Union general secretary Dennis Maga is not convinced opening a POLO here will make much difference.

He says it won't have the 'machinery' to help exploited workers, and will simply refer cases to an already overburdened Labour Inspectorate.

Although the inspectorate enforces minimum entitlements, Maga says that doesn't address the problem of migrants being paid below the market rate, particularly in the construction industry.

'Employers prefer to use migrant labour because they are being paid less than local workers. It can be a big difference – a $5 gap [per hour].'

Some recruiters in the Philippines also try to sue workers who change employers when their New Zealand contracts end, Maga says.

As a result, some workers were too frightened to go home for a visit in case Philippines Immigration stopped them returning to New Zealand while legal action against them was pending.

'They may be entitled to change jobs, but an agency can use a loophole to make workers scared about the ramifications of changing employers, even if the employers are exploiting or abusing them,' Maga says.

Domingo agrees recruiters need to understand workers are free to change jobs under New Zealand law.

He says the Philippines Government is looking at setting up a new ministry to handle overseas labour functions and that could see the abolition of private recruitment agencies, a move likely to be 'fiercely' opposed by private recruiters.

But Domingo says it had the advantage of doing away with the huge fees Philippines recruiters charged migrant workers for finding them jobs.

'It is an evil. It is unconscionable.'