It won the dismissal claim but waiting nearly a year to release final pay still cost this firm

A labour hire firm beat a dismissal claim but was penalised for withholding a worker's final pay, Member Helen van Druten ruled 1 April 2026.

Volha Daniliuk had been a permanent employee of Big Black Sacks Limited (BBS) until 2022, when the company decided to outsource its staffing and HR functions. One of its own staff, Antoinette Tofilau, set up a labour hire agency, For The Boys Limited (FTB), after talks with BBS chief executive David Waddell, and workers were offered an incentive to move across.

By her own account, Daniliuk says BBS offered her $11,000 to end her permanent agreement and sign a fixed term "on-hire" deal with FTB. On 21 November 2022 she entered the two-year agreement, placed back at BBS and due to end on 21 November 2024. The placement was linked to the Dunnhumby review, a Foodstuffs North Island data project.

As the term wound down, FTB tried to arrange a new agreement, but the offers were short and on different terms, so Daniliuk declined them. She then raised personal grievances, claiming in Daniliuk v For The Boys Limited [2026] NZERA 198 that her fixed term agreement was invalid, that she had really been permanent, and that the last-minute, uncertain renegotiation amounted to unjustified dismissal and unjustified disadvantage. BBS, the host business, was joined as a controlling third party, but only for the disadvantage claim.

The dismissal claim turned...

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