What a genuine redundancy still cannot excuse, according to the ERA
A New Zealand employer was ordered to pay a dismissed sales manager $18,000 plus five months' wages, even though its redundancy was genuine.
The Employment Relations Authority issued that determination on 19 March 2026, finding that Strautmann Hopkins Limited (SHL) had failed to meet its consultation obligations when it gave notice of redundancy to regional sales manager John Pio on 26 April 2023, with his employment ending on 26 May 2023.
SHL sold Strautmann farm machinery and other related products in New Zealand under agency from a German-based manufacturer. When SHL lost that licence in 2023, its core business ceased. The Authority accepted the redundancy was genuine. Where SHL came unstuck was the process.
Mr Pio had been employed as regional sales manager since 1 March 2020. From around October 2022, employees became aware the licence would move to a new company. Mr Pio says he was told his employment would follow. Max Sturt, a former director of SHL, denied this. Ian Hopkins, a director and shareholder of Strautmann NZ Limited and Strautmann Hopkins (2023) Limited, accepted in evidence that he had indicated to Mr Pio that Mr Pio would move with him to the new entity, because that was the intention.
On 18 April 2023, Mr Pio stopped into HFG's head office in Palmerston North after a three-week South Island sales trip and stayed overnight. On 19 April he was called into a meeting without notice, handed...
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