An application for the renewal of an off licence for Blackbull Liquor store in Cambridge has been reserved by the Waipā district licensing committee after a hearing before commissioners Sara Grayson, Michael Cameron and Marcus Gower last week.
Licensing inspector Mary Fernandez opposed the application on the grounds of suitability citing in evidence an investigation by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) into the use of “voluntary” employees at the store.
Police, MBIE and the Medical Officer of Health did not oppose the application.
Early in the hearing Grayson, who chaired the hearing, gave an order for non-publication of the employees’ names.
Blackbull Liquor is owned by NKM Princess Ltd – the shareholders are Balvir Singh and Harpreet Kaur – which has operated the store at Carter’s Flat for seven years.
Blackbull Liquor store in Cambridge. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
MBIE labour inspector Charlotte Grimwood last year found nine employment breaches amounting to more than $20,000 in underpayment and arrears.
In her evidence Grimwood said she made an unannounced site visit in March last year and found two employees working there in a voluntary status.
They were “not particularly cooperative” when questioned, only giving basic details, she said.
Rather than take the case to the Employment Relations Authority or Employment Court, the inspectorate issued an improvement notice in September last year requiring the store owners to pay the employees’ owed wages and holiday pay.
The owners were cooperative and had already put a record keeping system in place, said Grimwood, and they complied with the notice by November.
At the same time the licensing authority, which had received an application for the renewal of the off licence, made an Official Information Act request to MBIE for details of the investigation.
Fernandez had found inconsistencies between statements made by the company director Balvir Singh, training records and the manager’s register.
She told the hearing employment law compliance was an area of mandatory inquiry when it came to liquor licence applications as they were directly related to suitability.
Because Singh operated a kiwifruit growing business since 2020 and the couple had owned the liquor store since 2016, they were not unfamiliar with employment legislation, she said.
“It is the inspector’s view non-payment of monies owed to persons who are deemed to be working and having lower payroll expenses, gave the licensee a competitive edge over those other licensees who are complying with the law,” said Fernandez.
In her evidence Harpreet Kaur said the couple felt part of the community and understood their responsibilities in operating the store.
They gave the two employees work experience in the store throughout 2021 but did not pay them.
After her investigation, the labour inspector told them to pay $16,861 to one of the volunteers and $4589.57 to the other.
The latter refused to provide a bank account, so the money has yet to be paid, said Kaur.
“We did not intentionally underpay our staff and were not deceptive or deliberate in our actions. We acknowledge we made a mistake with the payroll and record keeping but as soon as this came to light, we remedied it, and we have much better systems and processes so this cannot happen again.”
Sarah Rawcliffe of Harkness Henry, the lawyer acting for Blackbull Liquor, said her clients had chosen to take the penalties, not to argue and make the payments.
“It has caused them stress and they do not want to be back in this situation again,” she said.
This was not a case of an employer taking advantage. “They thought they were helping train someone.”
The couple submitted their off licence renewal application in December 2020 and had been subjected to a long period of uncertainty. A further licence application would have to be filed next month “so we are running out of time, and we are extremely stressed and upset about this,” said Kaur.
“We are honest and law abiding people and we are so sorry that we made these mistakes.”
In response to questions from police at the hearing about why she felt intimidated when Fernandez and a police officer visited the store in December 2021 given how intimidating customers could be, Kaur said it was hard running a business these days.
“A couple of weeks ago we had a customer come in using language saying ‘you bloody Indians, go back to your country’.”
The customer threw $25 at the duty manager and took the product out of the store, she said.
“We made a mistake, we did not keep the records. We amended it, if you go to the store now, every record (is) there for the last three years.”
The committee reserved its decision, and it should be completed and released within four weeks, Grayson told the hearing.
