Auckland company E-Advance Limited is accused of exploiting migrant workers. The alleged victims claim that the employer, which helps migrants to find jobs in New Zealand, has been causing them “emotional and psychological stress.”

As reported by New Zealand Herald, five complaints from employees were lodged against E-Advance with the Employment Relations Authority on Tuesday. According to the complainants, the company charged workers between $500 and $9000 to invest in it with the understanding that the workers would reclaim the money as wages. The charge was invoiced as “capital infusion.”

This scheme is sometimes used by migrant workers as proof of employment to gain permanent residency. The employer will then return the money to the worker, with the tax portion paid to the government.

But instead of regaining the money the workers have paid, the company allegedly did not pay them salaries or taxes.

E-Advance is also being accused of submitting their employees to “various degrees of humiliation,” from abusive emails to being put down at staff meetings if they refused to work full-time without pay.

There are apparently two staff members that had been living in the company’s level four office at Albert Plaza after the two had rant out of money to pay rent and food. As ordered by the company and under the threat of their visa status, the staff allegedly provided misleading information to the clients regarding the status of the company.

The two workers also told the Herald that the company forbade them to leave the premises after 6:00 pm because the building alarms would go off. They also had no access to a shower or kitchen, forcing them to survive on fruit and instant noodles for dinner.

The managing director of the company, Norajane Colos, denies that the staff were mistreated. If anything, Ms Colos said that the complainants “begged” her for the jobs to support their application for permanent residence in the country, adding that they knew very well that the amount that they paid were not capital infusion but simply payment for training.

“I was so naive, I trusted everyone. I was so open book and there is so much pain in my heart at the moment,” she told the Herald.

As for the two staff members who lived in the company office for two months, Ms Colos said she was even the last to find out.

The complaints were filed after the Labour Inspectorate began an investigation into the company and after a meeting with the company’s staff and their union representative earlier in August.

Migrant workers union Unemig alerted the authorities to the workers’ plight.

Its coordinator, Dennis Maga, added that the case where employees were found living in their employer’s office has been a first.

“It’s hard to believe such things still happen in modern-day New Zealand,” he said, adding that he believed the employer also breached health and safety regulations, as well as building policy for using the office as staff accommodation.

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