Directors must pay extra 20% damages to exploited workers

The directors of a company that exploited migrant workers have been ordered to pay full compensation plus an extra 20% in aggravated damages.

The workers brought a claim against DJ Houghton Catching Services Ltd for breach of contract based on unpaid wages, unlawful deductions from wages, unpaid holiday pay and a failure to pay the minimum wage.

They also brought a claim against the directors for inducing the company's breaches of their employment contracts.

Liability was established against the company and the directors.  As for compensation, the issues centred on hours worked, deductions made for rent and "employment fees", and the workers' entitlement to aggravated damages from the directors.

The court noted that the judgment on liability established that the hours they worked grossly exceeded the hours recorded on their payslips, and it was clear that not all the amounts on the payslips were actually paid.

When determining liability, the judge found that the directors were operating the company in a deliberate and systematic manner whereby the claimants were working many more hours than were recorded on the payslips, no records were being kept, and constructing the payslips was a fictional exercise.

Although the directors objected to the suggestion that they were involved in human trafficking, the evidence established that claimants worked as a result of force, threats and deception, having been recruited and harboured by the directors with a view to their exploitation.

The claimants would not be fully compensated unless, in addition to restoring the sums due to them, the award of damages reflected the effect upon them of their exploitation, manipulation and abuse by the directors.

The directors systematically denied them their statutory rights, and aggravated damages at 20% had to be awarded in recognition of the cumulative impact of their mistreatment.

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