An investigation has found "high levels of non-compliance" with migrant worker standards at 85 Auckland businesses.
The "large-scale" operation by the Ministry of Businesses, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) was launched after a number of complaints were filed against retail and hospitality businesses across the city.
The alleged breaches include workers being paid below the minimum wage, no employment contracts, inadequate or no record keeping, holiday and leave entitlements being withheld, visa condition breaches and employers demanding money from their employees.
Simon Humphries, head of compliance and enforcement at the Labour Inspectorate, said "deliberate non-compliance and exploitative practices" were identified at some of the businesses while others offended to a lesser degree.
"Some of the businesses were found to be non-compliant with lower-level breaches such a poor record-keeping. It's encouraging these businesses are now working with Labour Inspectorate to ensure they have better employment practices.
"However, there were also other instances where we were disappointed to find serious breaches in minimum employment standards."
Humphries said MBIE will be taking enforcement action against the worst offenders.
"At this stage, we expect between 12 and 15 infringement notices will be issued, which could lead to some accredited employers being placed on the standdown list.
"We take migrant exploitation seriously. This operation is a tangible example of that commitment to follow up on alleged breaches of minimum employment standards and exploitative practices," he said.
Humphries hopes the action taken will help to educate employers but also "hold accountable employers who are deliberately exploiting migrants".
"Our focus was on ensuring employers were complying with minimum employment standards by paying people the right minimum wage, holiday pay, leave entitlements and maintaining proper record keeping practices."
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