The company that owns Burger King New Zealand has been barred from hiring migrant workers for a year after under-paying a staffer.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) imposed the ban after the company breached the Minimum Wage Act 1983.

Unite Union national secretary Gerard Hehir said the company paid a salaried manager less than minimum wage. The employee was a Unite member.

JOHN NICHOLSON/STUFF Unite Union national secretary Gerard Hehir said the Burger King underpayment highlighted a "massive wage theft problem".

"This is a large, high profile corporation and shows that this is not just a problem for small restaurants and fruit pickers – it goes right across most sectors and company sizes" Hehir said.

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Burger King New Zealand owner Antares Restaurant Group was on Wednesday added to MBIE's stand-down list for businesses that have breached minimum employment standards. It will be unable to hire migrant workers until July 17, 2019.

The ban applies to 82 of the company's branches. The Auckland Airport restaurant is owned by another company and is unaffected.

Antares cannot support any work visa applications for the period. As a result, five employees risk losing their jobs at Burger King before the end of the year.

An MBIE spokeswoman said those "applicants are being contacted [on Wednesday] advising of the situation and providing them with a contact at Immigration New Zealand".

Five more migrants yet to start at Burger King were also affected, with two work visa applications withdrawn and three others "given additional time to find a new job offer".

MBIE confirmed the stand-down was the result of a Burger King New Lynn, Auckland employee being under-paid on three occasions.

In July, the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) ordered Antares to pay a former manager, Drew Desai​, $3500 for under-paying her on three occasions.

Desai was paid a salary to work 90 hours a fortnight. She told the authority her wages were so close to the minimum wage that when she was required to work overtime she was paid below the minimum wage for the hours worked.

Burger King initially accepted it underpaid Desai on three occasions, but in closing its closing statements to the ERA, claimed it happened on only one occasion.

Antares spokesman James Woodbridge said the group, which employs about 2000 staff across its Burger King restaurants, would amend its processes.

Salaried restaurant staff would be required to clock in and out as a result of the ERA decision.

However, Antares was "trying to understand" why MBIE had imposed a restriction on employing migrant workers, as Desai was "a Kiwi and not on a work visa".

"We do not believe this issue should have any bearing on people's ability to obtain work visas in New Zealand and we are in discussions with the ministry to understand their perspective."

The MBIE spokeswoman said Kiwi workers were protected by the employment standards' regulatory and penalty regime, while recruiting migrant workers was an "additional privilege" for employers.

"We are putting constraints on that to ensure that non-compliant employers can't have ready access to the international labour market as well," she said.

"When the breach is particularly serious, a banning order can be put on employers and this can prevent them from employing anyone – local or otherwise – for a period of up to 10 years."

Hehir said the breach highlighted a "massive wage theft problem" in which migrant workers were the most vulnerable to exploitation.

"Their visa conditions often tie them to one employer. They fear speaking out because if they lose their job, they lose their ability to work in New Zealand," Hehir said.

"Employers who steal from their employees need to be sent a very clear message. Banning them from employing vulnerable migrant workers is a good start. If an employer is not able to guarantee the most basic minimum conditions allowed by law, they should not be able to hire vulnerable workers."

Unite was concerned about the 10 people who would not be able to begin or continue to work at Burger King as a result of the ban, he said.

The union would work with Immigration New Zealand and other employers to find alternative employment.

"We understand the regulations that govern these bans are being reviewed this year and we will be asking the government to allow migrant workers caught by such bans to have open visas granted to help them get new employment quickly.

"These types of workers should not suffer exploitation and then be punished for it along with the employer who exploited them."

There were "hundreds of thousands of workers" at risk of not being paid properly, Hehir said.

Someone working for a salary equivalent to $17 an hour would be paid less than the minimum wage of $16.50 if they worked an extra 90 minutes a week, he said.

"The key factors in this case were the low level of salary, just above the minimum wage, and a failure to accurately record and pay for all hours worked.

"Minimum wage laws can easily be broken where salaried or waged workers on low rates do not have accurate records of actual hours worked."