MGA OFW GINAWANG ALIPIN AT MINALTRATO NG ISANG MAY ARI NG RESTAURANT NA KAPWA PINOY SA NEW ZEALAND!

In spite of the collective effort to fight against abuse among our overseas Filipino workers (OFW), hundreds of Pinoys continue to suffer at the hands of their employers. What’s worse, a handful of them were reported to have worked for fellow Pinoy bosses abroad with the promise of a great opportunity—only to end up being subjected to treatment normally associated with racist, bigoted, foreign nationals . In fact, two Filipino restaurant owners were just reported to have been found guilty for exploiting five Filipino employees in New Zealand. According to the judge, what they did wasn’t far from practicing a modern-day form of slavery.

In a news story from NZ Herald, Virgil “Gie” Balajadia, prime owner of 3 Kings Food in Birkenhead, is set to serve 26 months in jail, while her husband, Luisito Baladia, will be detained at home for eight months. In addition to, both were ordered to pay a fine of NZ $7200 (around PHP 270,000) by the Auckland District Court.

Apparently, the Pinoy couple, who are both citizens in New Zealand, violated the Immigration Act 2009 after exploiting and misleading employment agreements of the said employees.

This, after one of the victims reached out to the Philippine Consulate to report his employment condition. Said employee served the restaurateurs involved from April in 2014 to July of the following year. During his service, he worked over 10 hours per day for six days a week. He said the couple never allowed him to take breaks.

It was revealed that the Pinoy employers only paid him for 40 hours per week, and didn’t grant him his wages for the last three and a half months of his service. In addition to all this, said employee was ordered to pay NZ $150 (around PHP 5,600) for rent of a makeshift room in the pair’s garage. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) Assistant General Manager Peter Devoy also stated that the victim was also tasked to clean the house of restaurateurs involved whenever the restaurant was closed.

As calculated by the Labour Inspectorate, the five victims were supposed to get NZ $15,000 (around PHP 560,000) in wages, NZ $2,000 (around PHP 750,000) less than the minimum wage, and $5,000 (around PHP 187,000) worth of holiday pay.

According the Mr. Devoy, this goes to show that exploitation of workers—local or foreign—isn’t tolerated in the country.

“The overriding principle is that migrant workers have the same employment rights as all other workers in New Zealand.”