Director's Husband Ordered to Pay Car Groomer $55,392 After Company Collapse
Updated
Updated · HRD America · Aug 21
Director's Husband Ordered to Pay Car Groomer $55,392 After Company Collapse
1 articles · Updated · HRD America · Aug 21
Summary
$55,392.43 must be paid within 28 days by an Auckland company director’s husband after the Employment Relations Authority found he personally helped breach a migrant car groomer’s employment rights.
The worker, employed from June 2023 on a visa-linked contract for 40 hours a week at $29.70 an hour, said he was actually paid $23 and used phone notes, bank records and WhatsApp messages to prove the shortfall.
Simon Greening cleared the director for lack of evidence but held her husband liable because he directed the work, managed the business and ran payroll, while neither took part in the investigation.
The company had already been put into liquidation in March 2026 owing more than $950,000 to unsecured creditors, so the Authority let the worker recover $39,440.69 in wage arrears, $5,234.63 in public holiday pay, $7,717.11 in annual leave and a $3,000 penalty from him.