The Employment Relations Authority is awarding $19,000 to an employee who drove a window delivery truck for his employer without the correct class two driver’s licence.
Auckland man Vaipolui Edmond went to the Employment Relations Authority with his case, after his employer Goldstone Aluminium owner Roy Wang sent him a text: “since you don’t have your truck driver’s licence there is no longer any work for you going forward.”
Edmond claims he asked Wang for an employment agreement in October 2016 but was told he did not need one, and says he was never asked by his employer whether he had a truck driver’s licence until approximately five months after commencing employment at Goldstone.
At a work barbeque, Wang asked Edmond if he had a truck driver’s licence and he replied, no.
Nothing changed, and Edmond continued driving the truck and delivering the windows for Goldstone, until May 9 when he received the dismissal text on his way to work that morning.
Member of the Employment Relations Authority, Anna Fitzgibbon called the manner of dismissal by Wang, callous, and certainly not the action of a fair and reasonable employer as required by the Act.
Fitzgibbon ordered Goldstone to pay Edmond the sum of $9494.72 gross in wage and holiday pay arrears, $10,000 without deduction being distress compensation, and the filing fee of $71.56.
