Pizzeria owner: I did not withhold payments

Farhat Bourbia, who owns Farhat’sa Pitsa in Saltangará, denies having withheld payment to staff.

On 31 December, we reported that three African men claimed to have worked 14-hour days with no pay and suffered threats from their boss.

“These men were not employed by Farhat’sa Pitsa; they were employed by 20.10.20, and it is the manager of this company who was responsible for paying salaries,” says Bourbia.

20.10.20 is a company founded by Sp/f Rafiks’sa, managed by Bourbia, Sp/f Høgaleitið, managed by Bill Justinussen and Jóan Petur á Stongunum.

Days before the election, Sp/f Høgaleitið sold its shares of the company to Sp/f Rafiks’sa. Jóan Petur á Stongunum managed 20.10.20 at the time, but he resigned as manager on 2 December when Bourbia took over the management role.

Claims dismissed

“I am one of the co-founders of 20.10.20, but accounting and salary payments were never part of my job,” says Bourbia.

“It is not true that they worked 14-hour days and were never given time off. The pizzeria is open six hours per day. They did do some additional painting work for 20.10.20 in Klaksvík, but that was only for a couple of weeks.”

He adds that he has now helped one of the workers open a bank account, has paid him a monthly salary and that more will come soon.

“I paid out of my own pocket as I don’t have access to the 20.10.20 bank account. I have helped this man prepare all his banking papers and we have been to the bank together several times. But he has yet to finalise some things with the paperwork. I don’t know why he hasn’t done that.”

No comment from former manager

Bourbia says that he has spoken to Jóan Petur á Stongunum about this. Stongunum declines to comment on the matter.

The pizzeria owner dismisses claims by the workers that he they were subjected to threatening behaviour and were under constant surveillance.

“This is simply not true,” he says.

“I recently found out that 20.10.20 has massive debts. Perhaps the only way these men can get paid is through bankruptcy proceedings.”

When the news about this case broke, integration minister Bjarni Kárason Petersen said he will look into the matter to make sure cases like these will not happen again.

Read the Faroese versions of this article here and here.

More Faroese News in English.