Source: Employment New Zealand
Shen Yuan, the sole director of BDIT Limited, trading as Hua Restaurant, was recently ordered by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) to pay a former chef:
- $43,943.42 in wages arrears
- $21,000 as repayment for a premium demanded from him
- $20,000 in penalties.
Yuan’s wife Linlin Sun, who worked as a manager in his restaurant business, is jointly and severally liable for payment of the wage arrears and was ordered to pay $10,000 in penalties for her role in the breaches which occurred between September 2019 and September 2020.
Yuan and Sun must pay interest on the arrears. Yuan must also pay interest on the premium repayment.
The total amount the couple must pay in wages arrears, the premium repayment and penalties is $94,943.
Authority member Robin Arthur ordered that the former chef, a Chinese national, must receive $9,000 of the penalties due by Yuan and his wife.
BDIT Ltd formerly operated 2 restaurants in Auckland – one in Newmarket and the other in Albany. The Newmarket restaurant stopped trading in October 2019 and the Albany restaurant in September 2020.
This is the second time Yuan and his former restaurant business have been sanctioned by the ERA.
In 2020 Yuan and BDIT Ltd, trading as Hua’s restaurant, were ordered to pay their head chef $11,999.98 for outstanding wages.
The repayment order was made after Yuan failed to keep up the payments, as agreed in a record of settlement, following mediation in November 2019. Yuan had undertaken to repay the former employee $16,000 in weekly instalments of $666,67. However, he only paid $4000.02, leaving $11,999.98 outstanding.
