A worker dismissed for asking his boss to stop abusing him has been awarded $10,000. Stock Photo / 123RF
A worker dismissed for asking his boss to stop abusing him has been awarded $10,000. Stock Photo / 123RF
A manager who asked his employer to stop abusing him was sacked on the spot, just weeks after starting.
Construction labour firm Team One Limited also withheld pay from former operations manager Brad Williams after he lodged a complaint with WorkSafe about a workplace accident.
The Employment Relations Authority has ordered the firm to pay Williams just over $10,000, made up mostly of wage arrears and penalties for the employment breaches.
It found that they occurred because Williams was concerned about a "deliberate covering up of a workplace accident" he had raised with WorkSafe.
"The respondent used its superior financial power to hurt Mr Williams financially for making the WorkSafe complaint," ERA member Rachel Larmer said in her decision on May 4.
An employer withheld a manager's pay in an attempt to make him apologise for a complaint he lodged over a workplace accident. Stock Photo / 123RF
She also noted the manner in which Team One sole director Dave Etchells had responded to emails to the authority and to Williams' lawyer, describing his communication as "unsatisfactory".
In an email which began with "Tēnā koe, Etchells responded by saying, "I don't answer to communications addressed in language other than English", and in a subsequent email which began "Tēnā koe parties", Etchells sent back an email that said "Don't speak to me in Māori".
Open Justice tried phoning Etchells for comment, but the number listed was no longer active.
Williams was employed as an operations manager by Hamilton-based Team One Limited from July 14-30 last year. His first pay was late, and then he was not paid for the remainder of the time he was there.
Williams reported directly to Etchells, the firm's sole director and shareholder, who emailed Williams to say he would not be paid unless he apologised for making a complaint to WorkSafe.
The Authority was satisfied that it was a proper complaint, and that Williams dealt with his legitimate concerns appropriately, by referring the incident to the appropriate statutory body.
The ERA said in its decision Williams was dismissed without notice after he informed Etchells that he "did not want to be verbally abused by Mr Etchells, as had occurred on a number of occasions".
He was not given notice, or pay in lieu of notice when dismissed, and neither was he paid holiday pay owing.
Etchells refused to comply with mediation as directed and also failed to participate in any aspect of the authority's investigation process, the ERA said.
Several attempts were made to include Etchells in the investigation process, including inviting him to respond to Williams' claims. Etchells was eventually advised that if he did not take steps to participate, the claims would be determined based on the evidence filed by the applicant.
The ERA ultimately found that Etchells had incurred several breaches, and that penalties were warranted.
Penalties of up to $20,000 per breach could be imposed by the authority to punish and deter a wrongdoer and to signal disapproval of unacceptable conduct.
Taking into account the total breaches in this case, the maximum starting point for assessing penalties was $180,000.
The ERA found all of the breaches were "deliberate and intentional", and that the reason for all but one of the breaches was "reprehensible". The email informing Williams he would not be paid unless he apologised about the WorkSafe complaint was "completely inappropriate", Larmer said.
"Even if there had been some issue over the genuineness of Mr Williams' WorkSafe complaint, and the Authority did not agree that was the case here, that did not permit the respondent to withhold Mr Williams' wages until he withdrew his complaint."
She said all but the first breach (being the late payment of the first pay) were examples of an employer exercising its power to financially penalise an employee for raising legitimate (and serious) health and safety concerns.
The ERA imposed total penalties of $6000 for breaches of the employment agreement, of which $4000 was awarded to Williams and $2000 to the Crown bank account.
The firm was also ordered to pay Williams almost $5000 in wage arrears, plus $1500 towards his legal costs and $71 reimbursement of the filing fee.
