FourSquare store owner breached wages protection, minimum wage laws
Wednesday, 24 December 2025
The Labour Inspectorate has scored a legal victory against a FourSquare store owner, and one of its former directors, over breaches of the Wages Protection Act and the failure to pay minimum wage.
The Foodstuffs North Island cooperative, which controls the FourSquare brand as well as Pak‘nSave and New World, said it was concerned with what the Labour Inspectorate had found.
“These findings fall short of what we expect from businesses operating under our brands. We are committed to upholding fair and lawful employment practices and are treating this matter very seriously,” a Foodstuffs North Island spokesperson said.
G&G Bolina Limited, trading as FourSquare Tauhara in Taupō, brought in several unskilled migrant workers from overseas in 2023.
But an Employment Relations Authority ruling shows two of those workers were not paid for just under 710 hours of work in 2023, dragging their effective hourly wage below the minimum wage of the time, which was $22.70.
The authority also found one of the former directors of G&G Bolina Limited charged two migrant workers employment “premiums” of $10,000 to help them get visas.
Only one of the two workers named in the authority determination agreed to pay the premium to Gurvinderpal Singh, who ceased to be a director of G&G Bolina in December 2021, however.
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ERA member Rachel Larmer said Immigration New Zealand required employers accredited under its Accredited Employer Work Visa (“AEWV”) Scheme to commit to paying all recruitment costs in and outside of New Zealand, and not to pass any of those costs on to migrant workers.
“The respondents were therefore not entitled to seek to recoup these costs from the complainants,” Larmer said.
That meant Singh had breached the Wages Protection Act, she ruled.
The wrongdoing was uncovered by a Labour Inspector from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment investigating a complaint made in late 2023.
That investigation uncovered tens of thousands of dollars were owed by the store to the two migrant workers.
That included just over $16,100 under the Minimum Wage Act for work done in 2023, and just over $1000 under the Holidays Act.
“The complainants were not paid for all hours worked at no less than the applicable minimum wage rate,” Larmer said. “The complainants commenced their employment two to three weeks prior to when the first respondent began to pay them. The complainants also worked variable hours that were greater than the 30 hours per week for which they were paid by the first respondent.”
One of the workers worked “mostly seven days a week with a variable number of hours worked daily ranging from two to 15 hours a day”, though the records kept by the business recorded that he always worked five days a week for six hours a day.
The other of the two workers worked between five and seven days a week with a variable number of hours worked daily ranging from two to 15 hours a day, but the business’ records incorrectly showed she always worked five days a week for six hours a day.
One of the two workers was recorded as starting work several weeks after they really began.
Larmer recorded that Singh and G&G Bolina Limited agreed with the Labour Inspector that arrears were owed to the two workers, and she ordered them to pay the amount owed within 28 days of the December 18 determination.
Larmer said the business failed to keep compliant wage and time records under the Employment Relations Act.
Larmer also found deficiencies with several other workers’ employment contracts, and a failure to properly record hours worked by the two short-changed workers.
But her determination indicated that some things had changed since the breaches.
It now had an automated payroll system, rather than relying on keeping “manual records”.
Penalty claims were yet to be determined in the case, Larmer said.
Foodstuffs North Island’s spokesperson said: “Foodstuffs takes its obligations under New Zealand’s employment and all other laws extremely seriously and expects the same of all businesses operating under its brands.”