Go Bus has accepted it was wrong to illegally house a migrant worker at its Dunedin bus depot.
The admission and apology comes after the company came under fire in an Otago Daily Times report earlier this week for housing at least one worker in an office building in January last year, which the Dunedin City Council said was illegal ''due to fire risk and other safety factors''.
The number of staff illegally housed is under dispute. An anonymous staff member says at least three staff were in the building, while the company, after initially saying there were up to four, now says there was only one.
Go Bus South Island operations director Nigel Piper, of Christchurch, initially declined to accept what the company did was a mistake, but backtracked in a media statement issued by Ngai Tahu, which owns a majority stake in Go Bus, yesterday.
The statement said the company had ''no problem in admitting it erred in accommodating a new driver in an area near its offices while proper accommodation was being prepared back in January 2015''.
Mr Piper said while the temporary accommodation had all the necessary bathroom and toilet facilities, it accepted the space should not have been used in the way it was, even for one person.
''It was an unwitting mistake that occurred only once; and we accepted the advice of Dunedin City Council at the time, immediately, that the use of the area was not permitted.
''We will be undertaking a full investigation into how this decision was made.
''The local manager involved is likely to be subject to a disciplinary process.''
At the time, four immigrant drivers were brought in to cover for staff shortages in a group of up to 100 drivers.
''When the first driver arrived, the accommodation we had arranged was not quite finished.
For no more than five days, one person was housed in a vacant space next to its office as their accommodation.
''When the other three drivers arrived later, they moved directly into their new accommodation.
''We have accepted we were wrong in using the office space for accommodation, and apologise.''
