Morgunbladid reports that a woman who employed a Chinese man in her massage parlour in Kópavogur was recently sentenced to 45 days in prison (suspended for three years) for forging his signature on an employment contract.
According to the man’s lawyer, the woman had made a contract with the man’s parents which agreed to pay them 10,000 krónur a month for working at the massage parlour. For an 18-month period, she paid the parents only 147,000 ISK, while the man himself got no salary and received maintenance and accommodation. No salary-related fees (taxes, etc) were paid either.
The man is now demanding 4.7 million krónur in unpaid salary, plus overtime. “This is probably the first case of its kind here, but of course it is nothing but slave labour,” says Gudrún Björk Birgisdóttir, the man’s lawyer.
The man was one of three masseurs employed at the parlour. After they quit, two were deported, although the man in question managed to get a work permit.
