Business ordered to pay $36,000 for unjustified dismissal
A Christchurch paving company has been ordered to pay a former labourer more than $36,000 after the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found it unjustifiably dismissed him.
The ERA ruled that the company unjustifiably dismissed the Christchurch labourer by cutting off his wages, imposing unauthorised leave, and abandoning all contact while its director allegedly set up a new business in Australia.
The labourer began working for the Christchurch-based paving firm in August 2024, preparing driveways for tarmac paving.
He typically worked between nine and twelve hours a day, sometimes without standard meal and tea breaks, travelling from Timaru to work his way back to Christchurch over the course of each week, the ERA heard.
When the company shut down for the Christmas period in December 2024, workers were told operations would resume in January 2025. But work never restarted.
The director, who had travelled to Australia, told the worker via text message that he had been injured in a car accident in January and that it could be "6-8 weeks before I'm back at work."
This left the worker without wages and [forced him to] apply for a welfare benefit while he waited for clarity on his employment.
In February 2025, however, he came across an advertisement for an Australian business connected to the director that was actively recruiting workers.
Days later, an email from an unmanned company account informed the worker that...
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