Misery in the vines: a tale of ‘exploitation’

Sunday, 2 June 2024

They paid huge premiums for their jobs, but nothing was what these seven Indian migrants expected when they arrived in New Zealand, writes Steve Kilgallon.

Fuljinder Singh breaks into tears. “He [Amandeep Singh] said to me ‘when you come to New Zealand, I will give you a new car, because you are my manager. And I’ll give you a house, and you will not pay for either.” His 2023 tax certificate tells the true story: taxable earnings, $3.28, tax paid, 55 cents.

Fuljinder sold the two hectares of land he owned in Uttar Pradesh, India to pay a $40,000 ‘premium’ for a New Zealand visa, on the promise of being a kiwifruit orchard manager.

When he talks to Stuff, it’s outside the orchard in the tiny Bay of Plenty town of Te Teko where, says Fuljinder, he instead worked as a labourer and had to sleep two to a bed in overcrowded accommodation.

The company which brought him and 23 other Indian migrants to New Zealand to work in the kiwifruit industry liquidated owing over $1m to the IRD, even as some of them were flying over here to work.

That company, Paul Enterprises, was blacklisted by Zespri and had its visa accreditation revoked but there’s been no support for the workers left stranded here. Stuff understands Immigration New Zealand are investigating.

Fuljinder and six other Indian migrants told Stuff they had all paid large sums of money in India - ranging from $20,000 to $50,000 - to associates of Papamoa property developer Amandeep Singh as ‘premiums’ to secure their jobs.

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All said they had been underpaid, or in some cases, not paid at all, received no holiday pay, no sick leave, no payslips or employment agreements, been given irregular hours, and paid well below their contracted rate.

All described the same grim living conditions at the orchard owned by Amandeep, with up to 35 men crammed into one house and two sheds.

All, despite their visa conditions tying them to one company, appear to have worked as kiwifruit labourers for three different companies: Paul Enterprises, owned by businessman Jatinder Pal Singh, whom they believe is Amandeep’s brother-in-law; AST Group, owned by Amandeep, and Hands Construction, owned by Gurpreet Bhalla, a friend of the pair.

Bhalla was previously a director and shareholder of Bhalla Enterprises, which had its contractors’ licence with Zespri cancelled in 2021. He and Jatinder Pal were lauded as ‘platinum sponsors’ of the 2023 New Zealand Sikh Games.

Some of the men were sent to work at orchards owned by Southern Cross Horticulture. Southern Cross chief executive Josh Mounter confirmed they had dealt with both AST Group and Paul Enterprises, but had cancelled the arrangement last year when a worker approached them to say he hadn’t been paid.

The men made significant sacrifices to be here. Jaspal Singh says his youngest child was born while he was here; he has yet to see the four-month-old. “I thought I would make a better future for my family here,” he says.

Lovepreet Singh said he had argued with Jatinder Pal from his first day of work about being paid properly. He had also asked Amandeep Singh for the return of his premium.

In Fuljinder’s case, he arrived here on July 15 last year, and began work two days later. Fuljinder says Jatinder Pal paid him $20 an hour, and when he complained, said he had paid his taxes and ACC levies. He found out that he hadn’t.

The following month, Paul Enterprises went into liquidation, but the workers say none of them were told.“There is nothing left for me at home,” says Fuljinder, a tertiary-qualified teacher. “It’s too hard for me. I have nothing left in India.”

One of the seven men, Jashanpreet Singh, was on a visa for a different organisation, Takhar Trust, of which Amandeep is a trustee (the Takhar Trust was in receivership between February and May of this year).

He says Amandeep was his boss and hired him as a maintenance engineer in October 2023, but he never did any maintenance work.

He says he asked Amandeep to confirm he had been paid properly and for his employment agreement, and then approached the IRD to discover the tax had not been paid. He said he was then interviewed by a Zespri legal officer last December where he says he explained the whole story.

Jashanpreet supplied tape recordings of conversations he said were between him, Amandeep and Jatinder Pal. Translated from Punjabi, in one, a person asks another “Can we get our token back?” The man replies: “ We can try.” The first person asks again: “Is there any hope to get the token [back]?” and the other replies: “Hope is what keeps the world alive.” The implication is ‘token’ means money.

The men’s only avenue to get some compensation is the Employment Relations Authority (ERA). While the Official Assignee must grant permission for an ERA case to proceed against a liquidated company, individuals who have been part of a breach can be named as defendants.

One of the men, Jaskaran Singh, has lodged an ERA claim which names Amandeep, Jatinder Pal and Gurpreet Bhalla as respondents.

He has a similar story: he paid a $44,000 premium, then Amandeep arranged a job with Paul Enterprises as a tractor/delivery driver. He arrived in July 2023 to find he was expected to share a bed with another man and pay $100 a week for it.

After one wage payment of $930, he discovered no tax had been paid. He says Jatinder Pal told him he was struggling for funds but not to worry.

He had no work from mid-September to mid-October and when it resumed, his pay came from Hands Construction; he received eight payments of $901, working out to about $22.70 an hour. His last pay came on January 31, but he worked until the end of February at which point he says he was paid $4,000 by Amandeep Singh. He quit in March, and his ERA claim is for about $41,000 in wages and $4,000 holiday pay plus the return of his premium.

Jaskaran is represented by advocate Sunny Sehgal, who said: “This is one of the worst cases I have come across.

“These workers came here for a bright future… but several have not received a single penny since coming from India.

“We are talking about rich people who are exploiting vulnerable migrants, some of whom have given up to $50,000 in their home country to unscrupulous people. They expected a bright future but once they are here, they are all struggling. Immigration New Zealand has to be strict with these employers and not just cancel their accreditation but look at criminal prosecutions.”

Sehgal says he hopes to file a joint case for the remaining six men later on.

‘Go away… I don’t want to talk to you’

At his $1.8m beachside four-bedroom home in Papamoa, Amandeep Singh didn’t want to talk. He said he was “dealing with” Sehgal’s ERA filing. “You can please go away, I don’t want to talk to you… I don’t want to see you again here. I have already trespassed Jaskaran and I will trespass some more and if you come back, I will trespass you.”

He said he has given Jaskaran trespass notices from his home and the orchard, and Jatinder Pal has done the same.

Later, when Amandeep discovers that Stuff and the men are outside his property in Te Teko, he demands that we all stay there until he and the police arrive.

Attempts to contact Jatinder Pal Singh by phone, email and at his home in Papamoa were unsuccessful. Attempts to contact Gurpreet Bhalla were also unsuccessful; the migrants believe he has returned to India.

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) refused an interview, but provided a statement from deputy chief operating officer Jeannie Melville, in which Melville said INZ “empathise with Jaskaran Singh and the difficult situation he and the other workers from Paul Enterprises find themselves in”.

Paul Enterprises had 26 visa applications approved, with 24 travelling to New Zealand. INZ said they revoked their accreditation when they were informed about the company going into liquidation, but said one of those 24 arrived after that date, due to a “combination of human and system errors… an alert was not properly loaded in our system.. We sincerely apologise for this error and the resulting inconvenience.”

INZ said they had spoken to the staff member concerned and reviewed their processes. Stuff has been told there were actually three men who arrived after Paul’s liquidation. Asked to confirm this, INZ added that three workers had arrived in early September before Paul’s accreditation was revoked on September 29: Paul first had liquidators appointed on August 14 2023.

INZ said that was because they had “expressed concerns” to Paul about the business’ legitimacy and viability in August and had been awaiting a response; INZ said they had now changed their policy, and where they had concerns over an employer, they will contact offshore visa holders to advise them not to travel while concerns are addressed.

One of the men who arrived after the liquidation said he had no idea why he was allowed to enter the country. “I spoke to the Immigration officer and said ‘why did you give me permission to enter New Zealand?”

INZ said they had approved 10 Migrant Exploitation Protection Visas (MEPV) applications - including Jaskaran’s - and were assessing another. They wouldn’t confirm if Paul Enterprises, Jatinder Pal Singh or Amandeep Singh were under investigation, although Stuff understands INZ are investigating a complaint.

Zespri declined an interview, but provided a statement from communications manager Michael Fox, which confirmed Paul Enterprises had its CAV cancelled last September.

Fox said Zespri took any allegations of poor working conditions seriously and investigated them. It said all Zespri growers were certified to independent international standards, which included workers’ welfare modules, and all sub-contractors also had to be registered to the programme and vetted by private investigation firm AIM CRI, and hold a Compliance Assessment Verification, which includes annual inspections. Zespri publishes a list of those who’ve had their CAV suspended or removed and a list of approved contractors.

It also provided a phone line for tip-offs of worker mistreatment, an industry compliance team and worked with regulators to investigate poor behaviour. Fox said: “Any exploitation of workers is unacceptable and alongside the relevant authorities and NZKGI we will continue to do everything we can to ensure an industry free from exploitation and one where people are valued, supported and safe in their jobs.”

Whakatane District Council’s Nicholas Woodley said they would perform a monitoring visit to the Te Teko orchard to see if the structures there were compliant.

According to the property file, the last consented work was alterations and a carport in 2011. The buildings seen by Stuff appear much newer. Amandeep and his wife bought the 4.8 hectare property, which has an RV of $2.05m, in 2020.

Woodley said some structures up to 30sqm are permitted without consent, but otherwise unconsented work would need a notice to fix or a certificate of acceptance and council could issue a “ dangerous, insanitary or affected building notice” to rectify.

While the seven workers who spoke to Stuff all have six-month MEPV visas, the reality is they will find it hard to find work paid at the rates prescribed by INZ.

“I am very upset,” concludes Fuljinder Singh. “I am very depressed. I am searching for work. I am trying to survive. I got my MEPV on March 27, now five months remain. But what I do after five months, I don’t know. It’s too hard for me.”