A plywood box in a liquor store backroom, home for one of New Zealand's estimated 3000 modern day slaves

Friday, 5 November 2021

This is the plywood “bedroom” in the storeroom of a North Island liquor store that a man, named only as DS in Tenancy Tribunal documents, lived in for months.

For a man named only as “DS”, a plywood box in the storeroom of a liquor store was the place he called home.

According to a Tenancy Tribunal ruling seen by Stuff, that was his place of residence for months.

“This room was essentially a plywood box. It contained a bed and a shelf,” the ruling said.

“I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that DS was living at the [liquor store] during the time of his employment.”

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Migrant Workers Association spokesperson Anu Kaloti said one case of migrant exploitation has stuck with her for years, a woman left deeply traumatised after being forced to have an abortion by her employer.

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According to DS’s boss however, this was an act of kindness from a “good employer”.

“The respondant says that it made the plywood room and placed the bed in it as DS suffered from epilepsy and as a good employer they wanted to provide a place for DS to rest if he became tired, as that could bring on an episode of epilepsy.”

For Anu Kaloti, Migrant Workers Association NZ spokesperson, the only unusual aspect of the case is that it came to light via a Tenancy Tribunal ruling.

The entrance to the plywood box in a liquor store back room that “DS” lived in for a period of months.

Stuff spoke to Kaloti, and several other people involved in combating modern slavery, after obtaining a Tenancy Tribunal document about the extent of migrant exploitation in New Zealand.

Kaloti started the conversation with an apology for the apparent flippancy when she mentions what she calls “two for the price of one” deals.

She doesn’t want to offend anyone with the term, because she’s not talking about tins of beans.

She’s talking about people, here in New Zealand, who are trapped in what she describes bluntly as “modern day slavery”.

According to the University of Auckland Business School associate professor Christina Stringer, co-author of the White Paper Temporary Migrant Worker Exploitation in New Zealand, on any given day as many as 3000 migrants may be being exploited in New Zealand.

While liquor stores appear to feature often in cases of migrant worker exploitation, Kaloti said they found it “everywhere we looked”.

Retail, restaurants, orchards, medium-sized enterprises.

“Bottle shops are up there though, number one.”

It’s a sector where one booze baron can amass a $36m property empire, despite failing 19 Labour Inspectorate investigations.

According to Kaloti and Stringer, exploitation can take many forms though commonly involves low rates of pay, overwork, refusal to pay for holiday work, forcing employers to work when sick and abuse.

AIM CRI's Cam Bower said migrant worker exploitation could be found “across every industry in New Zealand”.

One person in Stringer spoke to was paid $3 an hour for their work, while another person they interviewed “regularly worked 70 hours and in extreme cases 90 hours a week, earning just $8 an hour”.

Stringer said often the exploitation can start slowly.

She interviewed one man whose boss initially told him “you are like my son”.

Then he started asking for money.

“They loaned the employer a considerable amount of money with the promise when the employer was eligible for a bank loan they would pay that money back. The demands for money, borrowed from family and friends, kept coming.”

She said the employee was required to work 80-hour weeks and paid $8 an hour.

“The employer threatened to report them to Immigration New Zealand if they complained,” she said.

The employee was told: “We are the citizens here, you can’t touch us.”

She said the business folded and the employer simply relocated, “without paying back the loan or wages owed to his employee”.

The abuse can be much more serious too.

Kaloti said there is one case which, even though it took place three years ago, she “can’t let go of”.

Union Network of Migrants president Mandeep Singh Bela said exploitation via visa was essentially “bonded or slave labour”.

“It’s the most extreme case we’ve had,” she said.

It was a female beautician working in the North Island, who told her employer she was pregnant.

“Next day the employer threatens her, terminate this pregnancy, or I’ll terminate this job.”

Kaloti said when she accompanied that woman to an interview with Immigration NZ staff about her experience, she was “strong, calm and controlled”, initially at least.

“Then she just broke down. That woman is traumatised, deep-rooted.”

She said that employer has since declared herself bankrupt after passing over the business to a relative, a move aimed at escaping any financial liability.

Auckland Business School Associate Professor Christina Stringer conducted 131 interviews for her study into modern slavery in New Zealand, and said as many as 3000 people could be being exploited here on any given day.

“She’s now a beneficiary.”

Everyone Stuff spoke to said the issue of migrant exploitation was largely enabled by one fact – the tying of New Zealand Visas to a job, and that employer.

“We call it bonded or slave labour,” said Mandeep Singh Bela, president of the Union Network of Migrants and the Indian Workers’ Association.

“From what we have seen over the last decade, a profiteering approach through education trafficking has resulted in a massive increase in migrant exploitation in New Zealand,” he said.

Bela said a survey they conducted found 65 per cent of the migrants they spoke to that had their Visa attached to an employer had experienced exploitation.

It’s a link Kaloti is well aware of.

“Nearly all the migrants, the dream that has been sold to them is New Zealand can be your permanent home, they then put up with the exploitation,” she said.

“The threats, we will get this [Visa] cancelled and you deported. People will put up with everything, they don’t want to jeopardise that.”

The cooking facilities “DS” had access to.

It’s a theme Cam Bower expands on.

His company, AIM CRI, offers major industries across New Zealand investigative and risk management services, specialising in what he describes as “supply chain compliance prioritising the elimination of exploitation”.

He said visas tie an exploited worker to their employer.

“They are unable to leave their existing job. It [the Visa] restricts or limits their ability to work or prevents them from working, therefore they could become illegal workers, and this is used to bond them through fear of being reported,” he said.

“They are sold a dream and that is the carrot that keeps them towing the line, they are promised things like residency by unscrupulous employers, so they think that if they keep working, they will get there. . . This bonded employment relationship creates an enormous burden on the victims.”

Bower said the fact he is able to operate such a business is in itself a sign of how bad the problem is.

“Exploitation is a huge issue in New Zealand,” he said.

“The last five years has seen the first people trafficking and slavery convictions, this was a real wake-up call for a lot of businesses.”

Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi has acknowledged the exploitation problem with visa changes.

Bower also said he believed exploitation could be found across a range of sectors, “anywhere that requires unskilled or semi-skilled labour”.

“It’s terrifyingly common across New Zealand, and we are yet to see a sector that is immune,” he said.

“What I can say is that this is very real, real people who deserve so much more.”

Then there’s the “two for one” deals Kaloti mentioned.

That’s when an employer supports one employee via a visa-attached job, then gets their spouse working for them too.

Stringer’s White Paper also revealed the effects of this exploitation on the staff themselves, with the majority of interviewees she spoke to expressing feelings “ranging from hopelessness and sadness to fear to frustration and anger”.

“Underpinning these emotions for many was the sense of the loss of hope and the realisation that false promises had led to unfulfilled dreams.”

She said some people she spoke to had even contemplated suicide.

As far as prosecutions, Stringer said she was aware of four people trafficking trials, and “numerous” Employment Court cases.

Bower said the relatively low conviction rate for modern slavery and exploitation here isn’t a reflection of the lack of cases.

“It’s a combination of lack of resourcing, expertise and a broken legislation and enforcement system,” he said.

“We believe greater collaboration is needed to bring about change as it can’t be achieved by Government alone.”

That’s not to say Government intervention can’t help.

Kaloti said recent changes to allow fast-tracked residency for migrants on temporary work visas will help.

Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi said the changes would make it easier for migrants to report, and leave, exploitative employment.

“Exploited migrants whose visas are tied to exploitative employers will be able to be granted another temporary visa which enables them to find alternative employment,” he said.

As for anyone who believes they are being exploited in their place of work, Kaloti recommends contacting the MBIE helpline on 0800 20 00 88, or the Migrant Workers Association NZ, while Bela advises employees to join a union.

As for DS, the authorities, in this case the Tenancy Tribunal, cannot always help.

MBIE national compliance and investigation manager Steve Watson said they brought the case as they believed the liquor store owner had committed a number of breaches of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986, including failures of the health and safety requirements, and breaching “the quiet enjoyment of the tenant”.

It came onto their radar in the wake of a complaint from a Labour Inspectorate, “who became aware that an employee was living at the liquor store”.

According to the Tribunal, while DS “gave evidence that he lived there because of his low wages”, it was unable to help.

”As I have determined that this was not a service tenancy, then I have no jurisdiction … The Tribunal does not have jurisdiction in this claim.”