This Company Was Caught Paying Workers with Beer

Turns out you can’t offer your employees beer instead of actual money, as a New Zealand business recently found. The business neglected pay an employee his expected wage and, by doing so, opened an investigation where it was discovered they also used alcohol as a form of payment.

SN Windows and Doors Ltd is now ordered to pay their former employee, Kinikinilau Uasike, more than $12,000, the New Zealand Herald reports. Uasike was paid under the standard minimum wage for about 6 months. He was then dismissed, being told there was no more work for him. The company also gave Uasike $80 for his troubles.

Uasike took his unfair dismissal to the Employment Relations Authority, which found that SN Windows and Doors Ltd did not keep accurate accounts of their payment records and even discovered that they would pay staff members with “a few beers” if they worked on Saturdays.

Uasike’s dismissal was found unjust. As a culmination of his unfair dismissal and pay shortages during the six months he worked there, the company was ordered to pay Uasike the $12,360.25.

Just hopefully not in beers.