Payslips showed he'd been paid, but the directors' personal liability turned on accountant advice
Three directors of a failed medicinal cannabis start-up were not personally liable for unpaid wages, Authority member Peter van Keulen ruled on 4 August 2026.
Aether Pacific Pharmaceuticals Limited (APP), a medicinal cannabis start-up, struggled to secure funding through 2024. Its former chief operating officer (COO), who joined on 4 November 2022 as process and operations manager before his promotion in early 2024, was dismissed on 23 October 2024, a move the Authority found was unrelated to APP's funding troubles.
APP went into voluntary administration on 20 November 2024 and liquidation on 4 February 2025. The former COO said he was never paid his final fortnightly salary of $4,732.55, nor his last pay covering a day worked and a day of annual leave, nor his accrued but untaken holiday entitlement. When the liquidators declined to let him pursue APP directly, he turned to the company's three directors personally, arguing they were liable under sections 142W and 142Y of the Employment Relations Act 2000 as persons involved in APP's breaches of employment standards.
One director, who had also served as acting chief executive during part of 2024, produced payslips appearing to show both payments had been made. The former COO maintained he never received the money, and the Authority preferred his account, noting it was unlikely he would pursue a costly claim against three...
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