ERA also finds the employer had lapses on ordinary wages, holiday pay, incentive policy
A residential construction company has been ordered to pay a former quantity surveyor thousands of dollars in compensation, unpaid wages, and incentives after the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found his redundancy was handled unfairly and that he had been working unpaid before his official start date.
ERA Member Simon Greening ruled largely in favour of the quantity surveyor in his case against the company, its sole director, and a shareholder who also worked as a manager.
The dispute centred on two periods. The first was March 2021, before the worker's official April 1 start date.
The company maintained he was merely observing, with the director stating in his witness statement that the worker was "not being brought in to the company as a fully functioning paid quantity surveyor from day one."
But the worker produced daily work logs, a timesheet and a supervisor's text message reading: "I will arrange to move forward with confirming your permanent employment."
The Authority sided with the worker in the dispute.
"[He] was employed by [the company] between 1 March and 1 April 2021," Greening found, ordering payment of the March 2021 minimum wage for a 40-hour week plus eight per cent holiday pay.
The ERA noted that although the company did not bill clients for the work, "it does not follow" that the company did not gain an economic benefit from the employee's activity.
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