Josh Thomas, a former Italian teacher at the language school, says he was owed money until Fairfax got involved.

Former staff of a language and dance school have accused it of sacking them without notice, withholding their pay, plagiarising textbooks and embellishing teacher qualifications.

World Languages Academy operates night classes in Italian, Spanish and French from a building in Queen St, Auckland as well as Latin dance classes from other venues.

The company has various trading names, including Spanish Institute, Casa Espana, Latin Rhythm, Italian Institute and French Institute, each with its own website.

Rory O'Sullivan Edward "Eduardo" Hieber

The Spanish Institute website describes it as the leading Spanish cultural centre in Auckland, and "unlike other organisations", all its staff are paid and are highly qualified.

But former staff say teachers, most of them visitors on working holiday visas, have been misled about their employment status, not given contracts and in some cases not paid.

There have been complaints about the company to the disputes tribunal and the IRD.

There are also allegations the school uses copyrighted textbook material lifted off the internet, passing it off as original, and has misled students about the backgrounds of tutors, some of whom had no teaching experience.

The company denies the allegations and say they come from disgruntled staff.

Owner and director Anthony Hieber, also known as Antonio, said "we have experienced issues with a small number of teachers" and there were good reasons for their dismissals.

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority and the Tertiary Education Commission say they only monitor organisations which offer qualifications.

Sandra Grey, president of the Tertiary Education Union, said it could be a "highly unregulated" industry.

"We always have concerns about for-profit private training establishments because really there's not much in the way of rules and regulations around them unless they do NZQA qualifications," she said.

Hieber claimed a former teacher who had poached students for a rival school was behind the allegations against his company.

The teacher, an Argentinian who asked not to be named, said that was not true. He had remained in contact with some students in a private capacity.

He claimed he was sacked without notice and told never to return, his final pay withheld.

Anthony Hieber's brother, Edward, who works at the school and is known as Eduardo, was charged by police with assaulting the friend of the sacked worker when he came to retrieve a television.

Edward Hieber said he had pleaded not guilty and was actually the victim.

Former French teacher Carla Ravon, now back in Paris, said she worked for the school two years ago but was sacked because she found a second job. "They refused to pay me around $600."

Ravon said whenever she asked for the money, she was threatened with being dobbed in to police, IRD or immigration, but she refused to give up and sought advice from a lawyer.

One problem was that she never had a copy of her contract, but eventually Edward Hieber paid her the money she was owed. "I never gave up."

Former teacher Josh Thomas, a New Zealander who is doing a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Auckland, majoring in Italian and Spanish, answered a job advertisement and began working at the school in February.

Thomas said his classes were going well but he was suddenly sacked and replaced when there was confusion over whether he was required to teach a class one night.

He was owed $490, which Anthony Hieber refused to pay because he hadn't stuck to the course books and had supposedly provided "substandard" services. Students were told he was sacked because he was "unreliable".

Thomas went to the Disputes Tribunal but after the Star-Times began asking questions, he was paid on Friday. He now plans to go to the Employment Relations Authority claiming lost wages.

Thomas said he didn't teach from the books that were provided because they were photocopies of copyrighted text books, with pages missing, and were written for individual study and unsuitable for a class environment.

The school's website promises free, 80-page course books "specifically written for the course, no mismatched folder of photocopies like other schools".

But a search reveals one of the texts, a beginner's Italian workbook, was published in 2005 by Barron's Educational Series - an American publisher.

Barron's has been alerted to the use of its text book and is seeking further information.

A Spanish language course book, stamped with a 2013 Latin Rhythm Dance and Language School copyright, appears to be an exact replica of a Cambridge University Press text book published in 2004.

Hieber said course books were compiled with specific courses in mind and any concerns about copyright issues were a matter between the school and the rights holder.

"We are dealing directly with them to put this issue to bed," he said.

There are also discrepancies in the biographies of staff on the various websites - the same teacher described variously as being from Spain or France depending on the course being offered.

Hieber said the discrepancies had now been corrected.

Former dance teacher Maria Marchant, from Chile, described her experience at the Latin Rhythm Dance School as a "nightmare".

She had no teaching experience but was promised training, which turned out to be one text book and some YouTube videos. She was never given a contract.

Hieber told her in en email not to tell her students it was her first time teaching salsa. "Some have done that in the past and it causes lots of problems," he wrote.

Marchant, now in Canada, said she was suddenly sacked and accused of gathering student details to start her own dance academy, which she said was ridiculous as she was on a working holiday visa and living in a hostel.

Hieber refused to pay her $600 that she was owed, so she went to the Disputes Tribunal. She said Hieber eventually agreed to pay her a reduced amount if she dropped her complaint.

There is also confusion over the employment status of teachers. Several said they believed they were employees, having answered job ads, but after several weeks were told they were contractors responsible for their own tax. One worker complained to the IRD.

Anthony Hieber said: "I am not aware of any teacher believing that he or she was employed by the school in a formal sense. The nature of the relationship is made clear when every new teacher starts. They are contractors."

Gareth Hoole and his wife Lisa began Italian lessons with the Italian Institute in June but said they were disappointed with the services the school claimed to offer, including an expansive Italian library with 8000 books, and specially written resources.

Hoole said he was given digital access to some classic Italian plays which he believed weren't suitable for beginners.

"There were 40 of these books and I said, okay so where's the rest of the 7960 books you promised? (Edward) said, oh there's problems with the copyright."

Hoole was "appalled" at the treatment of his tutor Thomas, who disappeared half way through the course. They were told he was a "no hoper", but he had been an excellent teacher.