Months after the owner of Auckland's Sky World was ordered to pay her $150,000 for unpaid work and emotional distress, ex-employee Sasha Lee says she is yet to see a cent.
By Melanie Earley of RNZ
Now other former employees have come forward to RNZ, alleging humiliation and distress caused by the sole director of Sky World, JNJ Management, James Kwak, along with being made to perform tasks they had not been trained for while working at the Queen St complex.
When approached by RNZ, a spokesperson for JNJ Management denied the claims made by the former workers and said further comment would not be made due to "ongoing legal processes".
Sky World - a labyrinth-like building with rocket lifts and staircases to seemingly nowhere - was once a popular destination in the central city, home to Borders bookshop and Planet Hollywood.
Foot traffic dropped dramatically after the Covid-19 lockdowns and today, the bulding is largely empty with many shuttered shops.
In 2017, RNZ reported the building remained open without a warrant of fitness for more than a year despite a "high risk" to public safety.
The ERA case
In May, Lee - a former personal assistant to Kwak - took her case to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and said while she was a personal assistant on paper, her work included acting as general manager for MetroLanes bowling and taking care of tenant-related matters (JNJ looked after several hospitality businesses within the centre).
Lee also worked on business sale and refurbishment projects and attended weekly governance meetings.
She claimed she was unjustifiably dismissed due to a lack of consultation from JNJ before duties were removed from her role.
The ERA found she was not consulted about changes to her role and so an announcement sent to all employees about a newly hired HR manager had come as a shock and caused her considerable stress.
It found Lee had been unjustifiably disadvantaged by the removal of management duties from her role.
Documents from JNJ did not explain why Lee's position was proposed to be redundant and the ERA said it did not explain the savings it needed to make or how it would help JNJ.
There was no mention of alternatives to redundancy, or other cost savings that could be made.
Lee claimed she was not paid for additional hours worked, while JNJ submitted she was on a fixed salary and all hours were fully compensated in that way.
The ERA found she did work additional hours, and notes from her work diaries showed the nature of her work went far beyond a PA position.
It found she was also owed 378 hours of accrued annual leave.
When Lee was made redundant, she had limited family support in New Zealand and struggled with depression.
The ERA found the dismissal affected her sleep and caused anxiety.
Lee told RNZ she was yet to receive any payment and understood JNJ had filed a challenge in the Employment Court.
As there were ongoing legal proceedings she didn't want to comment further at this stage.
'Shouted and sworn at'
Steven Yang, who worked as assistant facility manager at Sky World during 2022, alleges Kwak, shouted, swore and "humiliated" him in front of other employees.
"He was continuously very aggressive, short tempered, shouting and swearing toward me and others during business hours," he said.
"During a meeting in 2023, he began swearing at me in front of my colleagues. I felt so belittled and embarrassed - it caused me great humiliation and distress."
The event led him to immediately resign.
"I couldn't breathe in the office so as soon as he yelled at me in front of everyone I resigned straight away."
Yang said he found the job through an advertisement on a Korean website and was surprised by the state the building was in.
"I was surprised a building in the CBD was falling apart.
"It's a s*** building. Really no good."
Former property assistant manager Krista* worked at Sky World in 2022 and said she was made to carry out several different roles without any prior consultation or notice.
She said she was first brought on to try and help carry out the sale of Sky World, but after a few months her hours were reduced from four days to just two, without notice.
Krista said soon after her mother, back in Korea, died.
"The owner [Kwak], declined my bereavement leave and my pay hours were reduced."
She said she ended up quitting over the way the bereavement leave was handled and took her case to the ERA to resolve it.
Krista said Kwak ended up paying her bereavement leave and unpaid wages, so she dropped the ERA case.
Leigh*, who also began working at Sky World in 2022 as an IT technician, said despite his employment agreement and lack of experience in other areas he was asked to do the work of a handyman, security, operation manager and bartender.
He said he was asked to work at MetroLanes, a bowling alley inside the complex, where he had to maintain the bowling lanes and set up booking systems.
"There was lots of multi-tasking and lots of jobs outside of my agreement. I helped support and boost the business.
"He got me to do jobs that an outside contractor was meant to do, to save money."
Leigh often said he worked very long hours for no extra pay.
"I found the job on TradeMe, I didn't hear back for weeks, and I sort of forgot about it until they called me back.
"I remembered the place and visiting it when I was growing up, so I thought it would be cool to work there."
When Leigh began working, he found the "IT department" was just him.
"So I just started having to do all sorts of work. I was doing things I was not trained for. I was told to be the operations manager of MetroLanes so I had to get a new food hygiene grade. That was a lot of paperwork.
"I had to set up their website, deal with creditors, it was really frustrating for me, but I was doing quite well, things were moving."
But Leigh said the long hours, and continued pressure impacted his home life, and he found himself becoming increasingly stressed.
"Every day it was something new. It was meant to be 40 hours a week but I was there pretty much all the time.
"I had to quit because I think if I continued any longer my partner would have left me because I was bringing all these issues home."
Leigh said he wanted Kwak to stop treating employees, especially younger ones, in such a way.
JNJ denies allegations by former workers
In an emailed response to RNZ, an unnamed spokesperson for JNJ Management and Kwak said the allegations by former workers were all "strongly refuted".
"JNJ Management Limited places the utmost importance on the well-being and fair treatment of all our employees, and we are committed to upholding ethical and compliant workplace practices."
The spokesperson said as the matters were subject to ongoing legal processes, the company was taking "appropriate legal action" and could not comment on specific details at this time.
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