Following a complaint at the end of 2020, a labour inspector found Reza Abdul-Jabbar, owner of Rural Practice Ltd, breached multiple employment standards.
A nine-day hearing revealed he used "invented' records to cover up that he was underpaying his three Indonesian staff.
Abdul-Jabbar, who was previously celebrated for his work in the community, including being the Imam of the Invercargill Mosque, put the exploitation down to honest administrative mistakes.
He claimed his staff had been "ganging up' on him for their own financial gain.
Last year the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) fined the farmer $215,000 for the ill-treatment of his staff.
He claimed paying it would be an "affront to his moral code' and indicated at the time to the Otago Daily Times he would consider appealing the decision because be believed the fine was too high.
An Employment Court decision released this week indicates an appeal was due to be heard in October last year, but was delayed while it considered an application from Abdul-Jabbar to have the scope of the appeal expanded.
It shows he applied for leave to file affidavits from January this year to further prove his dire financial situation, which he said supported his argument that the "excessive" penalty should be reduced.
He also asked the court to expand his appeal to include, as another ground of his challenge, that the authority member who fined him, Alastair Dumbleton, was biased, as he had previously acted for the Labour Inspectorate.
Both applications were declined.
Judge Joanna Holden said the financial affidavits were too recent to be relevant to the ERA’s decision on how much to fine Abdul-Jabbar.
She also noted that Mr Dumbleton previously acted for the Labour Inspectorate, but not the labour inspector involved in this case.
Abdul-Jabbar had previously accepted the Employment Court did not have jurisdiction to deal with the matter. Nevertheless, he still made the application to have it considered in the appeal, Judge Holden said in her decision.
In its February 2024 decision the ERA said it considered Abdul-Jabbar’s financial situation when imposing the fine.
Of the $215,000 fine it ordered, $10,000 was to go to the affected workers.
Abdul-Jabbar was also ordered to pay $52,056 in reparation to two staff, in addition to $64,387 voluntarily handed over after the investigation began.
The decision does not indicate when the court will now hear the appeal.
