Amazon Surf workers unpaid during lockdown while waiting for wage subsidy

Saturday, 11 September 2021

Workers at Amazon Surf say they haven't been paid since lockdown started, while the company waits for the wage subsidy to come through.

Workers from surf and skate shop Amazon Surf say they have not been paid since the beginning of lockdown, while the company waits approval for its wage subsidy application.

In correspondence sighted by Stuff, sent to staff at the beginning of lockdown, the company advised workers that they would not receive pay at alert level 4, but that their leave entitlements wouldn’t be affected, so annual leave could be claimed to generate income.

In follow-up correspondence workers were advised the company had applied for the wage subsidy and once it was approved they would be paid and any leave taken reimbursed. However, later the company advised staff that more financial information had been requested by the Ministry for Social Development.

Amazon Surf is owned by Australian company Boardriders and has more than 25 stores and over 300 staff, its website says.

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One full time and one part-time worker, who Stuff has chosen not to name, had chosen to draw on their annual leave but was only able to take 40 hours for a two-week period in which they would normally work 80 hours. After paying rent they had just $50 left before the next payday on Thursday next week.

“It's been quite a struggle, with my rent plus $200 [for bills] and all that.”

They had family support and also had a student loan but said it wasn’t ideal to have to top it up to live.

“My partner, he got the wage subsidy, and he said he would help me out if it came to that, but you know, I don’t want to do that.”

Employment lawyer Susan Hornsby-Geluk says employers are obliged to continue paying staff in lockdown.

Amazon Surf was approached for comment.

Employment lawyer Susan Hornsby-Geluk said employers were not absolved of their obligations to pay staff due to lockdown.

“Even where businesses cannot open, the Employment Relations Authority has made it clear that they are required to continue paying employees their contractual entitlements unless employees agree to a different arrangement.

“I have a lot of sympathy for businesses that cannot open, but the answer is not to take the law into their own hands, but to consult with staff about what is possible and what is not, and seek their agreement to any changes.”

Employers who were receiving the wage subsidy should be passing it on to their staff, because that was what it was for, she said.

Stuff also spoke to a cafe worker in Auckland who was in the same position. She would not name her employer but said it was a well-established firm that owned six cafes in Auckland.

She was told the owners couldn’t give workers the hours stated in their contracts and instead was offered fixed-terms to the original contract that said workers were obliged to take unpaid leave while its application for the wage subsidy was processed.

“I didn’t feel comfortable signing it. What if they don’t get the wage subsidy?” she said.

The first round of subsidies had gone through after lockdown was announced and staff were paid on time, but after the lockdown was extended, the worker said she did not receive a payslip, and her pay was not deposited.

“No-one warned us that we wouldn’t get paid this week. That was very unprofessional. We have bills to pay, we need to eat.”

The cafe worker said she was leaning on family and friends to get by.

Ministry for Social Development general manager of centralised services, Jason Dwen, said wage subsidy applications were being processed rapidly.

“We rely on information from Inland Revenue to verify what an applicant has told us. This is necessary to uphold the integrity of the wage subsidy scheme. We take our duty to taxpayers seriously, and we have to balance the integrity of the scheme with paying applicants as quickly as possible.”

The Ministry had paid out more than $1.5 billion to 256,395 businesses since the August 2021 wage subsidy scheme opened, which had supported more than 1 million jobs, as of September 8. More than 42,000 applications had been declined.

“The vast majority of applications are completed within three working days, with payment in either the same day or next business day. We continue to get new applications every day.”

A common reason for applications taking longer was if information held by Inland Revenue didn’t match up with the information on a company’s application form, Dwen said.

Financial support was available to people whose employment and income had been affected, including the short-term absence payment and the leave support scheme, which could help with urgent bills or food, income support and support getting a job or training, he said.