Underpaid for five years: Manukau Institute of Technology lecturer wins $80K-plus payout

Photo / File

An ex-Manukau Institute of Technology lecturer has won a large payout from his former employer after years of underpayment and an unjustified dismissal.

Brian Wilson started at the polytech as a casual employee in 2011, then between 2013 and 2018 he served as a full-time lecturer at its Automotive School - but an administrative error meant he was paid at his lower, casual rate during his years as a full-timer.

The gap was largest in his final year, when Wilson was due $53,281 but paid just $35,179, according to an Employment Relations Authority determination.

Wilson also claimed he had missed out on meal allowances and expense payments, and said he was unjustifiably dismissed.

ERA member Eleanor Robinson noted that Wilson was not a union member, and not covered by a collective contract. But he should have been covered by an individual contract with terms mirroring the collective agreement, she ruled. As such, he had been under-paid by a total of $70,166 over a five-year period.

Manukau Institute of Technology lecturer Brian Wilson's salary shortfall. Source / ERA

Robinson ordered MIT to pay that sum, plus $5613 in holiday pay arrears.

She also ordered the polytech to pay back-dated Kiwisaver contributions at the rate of 3 per cent per anum for 2014 through 2018, and interest on the money he was owed.

MIT let Wilson go in 2018 following a decline in student numbers.

The polytech did not follow the correct procedures in his dismissal, with his immediate superior believing he was still a casual employee.

The polytech conceded the dismissal was unjustified.

Robinson accepted it was a genuine error rather than malicious and said it was a "low-level" breach of employment law. Wilson $5000 for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings.

MIT also conceded that Wilson should have been paid meal allowances and expenses, but did point out he had not filled out the usual paperwork.

Robinson said Wilson contributed to the underpayment issue and unjustified dismissal with his "casual approach to his salary payments," not telling MIT's HR department that he had problems accessing its Pay Kiosk portal, not checking his remuneration against the collective contract, not enrolling in Kiwisaver, and not taking any steps to confirm his change in employment status.

However, she still found the onus was on the polytech. Wilson's shortcomings were not sufficient to merit any reduction in his payout.

Costs were reserved.