Truck company told to pay driver $21k

An Auckland-based trucking company has been ordered to pay more than $21,000 to an Otaki man who used a company truck to go home and pick up diabetes medication and clothes, the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has ruled.

George Maikuku was employed by STL Linehaul (STL) and on October 12 last year he took the day off to go to a doctor's appointment. While at the doctor's Mr Maikuku was told by the company's sales manager he was needed at work.

After arriving at the Palmerston North depot for work he was told he would need to drive to Auckland despite not having a set of spare clothes or diabetes medication which he needed with him.

Mr Maikuku then told the Palmerston North manager he was going to his home in Otaki to pick up clothes and medication, which the authority noted the manager would have known involved him taking the truck.

The manager made no comment about taking the truck to Otaki.

After Mr Maikuku arrived in Otaki, STL's Auckland manager and major shareholder Robert Pearson called him and said he was "finished" for using the company truck as a taxi service, and that he was redundant.

ERA member Greg Wood said STL had been unjustified in dismissing Mr Maikuku and had not followed the legal requirements for redundancies.

"No fair and reasonable employer would criticise an employee for taking the truck home in order to collect vital medication and necessary clothes and other provisions," Mr Wood said.

STL was ordered to pay Mr Maikuku $11,690 in lost wages and $10,000 in compensation.

STL did not take part in the ERA proceedings, only telling the authority that the company had been having "a real bad time and had to make Mr Maikuku redundant".

- NZPA