A Tauranga truck driver has been awarded more than $22,000 for being “unjustifiably” sacked over disputed holiday pay.
Stephen Taylor worked at Farm Beach Transport Limited from April 2018 to November 2018.
On November 22 he saw on his payslip Farm Beach had recorded a week of paid annual holiday instead of normal wages.
However, Taylor had been at work as normal and had not applied for any annual holiday. He pointed this out to his boss, the company’s director, Paul Hinton.
On November 25, Farm Beach sent him an email “out of the blue” saying he had been dismissed, without any reason, and that he would be paid two weeks’ of his annual holiday pay as his notice.
The Employment Relations Authority found the dismissal “was more likely than not done in retaliation for Mr Taylor querying the improper and unlawful way in which Farm Beach had dealt with his annual holiday entitlements”.
“There is no information before the Authority to suggest that Farm Beach had a good reason for dismissing Mr Taylor in the way that it did. It also failed to comply with its statutory good faith obligations or with any of the four procedural fairness tests in [the Employment Relations Act].”
Farm Beach did not respond to the Authority’s investigation process although it had “ample opportunity to do so”.
Ahead of the August 29 hearing, the wife of Paul Hinton emailed the Authority to say he would not be appearing at the investigation meeting because his truck had broken down.
Taylor was awarded $10,000 in compensation for distress, $8650 in lost remuneration, $2569 in wage arrears, $1200 for legal costs and $452.06 in filing and service fees.
