Church behind ‘elaborate’ scheme exploiting migrant workers appeals

Trustees of a Dunedin-based Jesus Aroma Church Trust have appealed a ruling against them for exploiting two vulnerable migrant workers.

The group were fined more than $164,000 in April in what investigators described as an elaborate scheme targeting vulnerable migrant workers, a decision released by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) in April said.

The church trustees – named by the ERA as Victoria Jeon, Joseph Jeon and Mi Sun Leem – received donations from Korean Churches and used them to employ a pastor, who in turn worked at the Dunedin Taekwondo Academy.

Part of the migrant worker’s role involved cleaning the facility, and helping with the warm-up of the students. The academy was operated by trustees of the church as a commercial entity.

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In the April finding, the ERA ordered the trustees to pay Song $71,848 as arrears for wages and holiday pay and the premium of $64,172 that he had paid to the trustees.

The church’s trustees have filed an appeal in the Employment Court seeking a fresh hearing, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) confirmed.

In a separate ERA ruling in May, one of the trustees – Victoria Jeon aka Jong Ai Park, the sole director and shareholder of Elev 8 – was found to have breached the Minimum Wage Act, the Holidays Act, and the Employment Relations Act 2000.

Jeon was found to have paid worker Haesol Yuk nothing, despite her working 12-hour days, six days a week in the Dunedin business. Jeon unsuccessfully argued to the Authority that Yuk was a ‘volunteer’.

Jeon has not appealed the decision against her and Elev 8, with those arrears and penalties still to be determined, MBIE labour inspectorate regional manager Brendon Strieker said.

Jeon, who continues to run the business, referred any question to her lawyer.