A builder sacked by text message has been awarded $29,000 in lost wages and compensation. Photo / stock image 123RF
A builder sacked by text message has been awarded $29,000 in lost wages and compensation after his boss blamed poor reception for not phoning him with the news.
Paul Woods was employed as a builder and handyman by Pahiatua based Advanced Solutions Group 2020 Limited from March 2020 until he was dismissed four months later.
He told the Employment Relations Authority he was dumbfounded and humiliated by the actions of his former employer, which happened at the end of a Covid lockdown.
The company's sole director, Mike Robb, texted Woods on July 15, 2020, blasting him with a string of accusations, including time claimed for driving to work after he had moved out of town.
The ERA said in a just-released decision that Robb told Woods he and a client had been keeping track of the time he had been on a job, including one day when Woods claimed he had started at 9am.
Robb said he had been on site until 10.30am and that Woods had not been there. Woods was also reminded that he was paid for the hours he worked and not for driving to work.
"It was your choice to move out of town and I will not pay travel time that on some days where more than the hours actually worked, and I have no obligation to [sic]."
Woods, who had been a builder for about eight years, was employed to work 36 hours a week, with flexible start and finish times. He had included 45 minutes' travel time when working in Pahiatua.The text reminded Woods that the work van had been taken from him because he had been "abusing the perk", and that he had not paid back money for items bought on the company account.
Robb said he was also looking at large losses because a job took weeks longer than scheduled, which he could not afford.
"It is for these reasons that I'm terminating your employment with Advanced Solutions Group effective immediately," Robb said in the text message, and that an official letter would be emailed the next day.
"I'm sorry this is being done by text but I am still working to make up for the lack of work done in the last few weeks and have bad reception where I am so can't call. I would have liked to tell you, not text. I wish you all the best moving forward," Robb said.
He did not appear at an Employment Relations Authority investigation meeting last month held via Zoom but had filed a statement explaining that Woods had been "terminated for serious misconduct", which he said included theft from the workplace and falsifying documents.
Robb claimed that Woods had not turned up for scheduled meetings, and that theft from the workplace could result in instant dismissal, therefore no further action was required.
Authority member Sarah Kennedy awarded Woods $15,000 compensation in recognition of the employer's failure to justify the dismissal, and the sharp deviation from process and the individual employment agreement.
Woods was also awarded $14,000 as reimbursement for lost wages, after his claim of unjustified dismissal.
He had been working for the company on a casual basis before he was taken on permanently. He had initially been provided with a work van to drive to and from jobs, but it was not returned to him after Robb said it needed servicing. His contract said it could only be removed after consultation.
Woods said he was never told there was a concern that he was abusing the "perk".
Woods was working in a rural location near Pahiatua, and then had to use his own vehicle, pay for his own petrol and was also expected to take another employee of Advanced Solutions with him.
The ERA said the firm's statement in reply and text message traversed several issues an employer could legitimately have concerns with, yet Woods had no evidence to give about any performance concerns being raised with him.
"He said that he never received any negative feedback from Mr Robb. In relation to the suggestion that there had been serious misconduct, his evidence was that he had no knowledge of what that was."
He said he only took home the tools he was using on the job, and that when the work van was taken away, he had to use his own tools.
Woods said he had bought personal items on the company account, because of a verbal agreement with Advanced Solutions, including that he had 28 days to pay back the money. He said the amount his former employer claimed was outstanding was for a drop saw, which was to be paid off weekly. He accepted he had not paid it within a month, but that it was now paid off.
The ERA said a worker could be dismissed without notice, but a fair process was needed to determine if there had been misconduct, and that three weeks' notice was required if employment was terminated under that clause.
Kennedy found Advanced Solutions failed to justify its actions, therefore the dismissal was unjustified, substantively and procedurally.
She said Woods' claim for 13 weeks' lost wages was calculated at a rate of $30 an hour over a 36-hour week. She said it also recognised that it had taken him longer than that to find another job.
The parties were encouraged to resolve costs between themselves.
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