Wellington mayoral candidate Graham Bloxham ordered to pay former worker $28,294. Photo: Supplied
In Your Pocket Media, which operates the Wellington Live Facebook page, has been told to pay a former employee almost $30,000.
Joseph Parr took the company to the Employment Relations Authority, complaining that he was constructively dismissed, unjustifiably disadvantaged and had wages owing to him.
In Your Pocket Media was founded by Wellington mayoral candidate Graham Bloxham, who is the current director and shareholder.
The company bought the Facebook page Wellington live in 2021. Parr was employed as head of digital marketing.
He said Bloxham was a family friend who approached him. It was his first proper job in a media field.
He started work on $30 an hour but was told that would increase to $32 in about May 2022.
But he said he did not receive that increase; he was not given pay slips during his employment and his wages were not paid regularly.
He said he was also subjected to humiliating treatment including jokes by Bloxham about his appearance.
Parr said it was a toxic work environment and Bloxham's actions were not in line with what Parr believed the Wellington Live page was about.
Parr told the Employment Relations Authority that he and some of his colleagues discovered their taxes appeared not to have been filed with Inland Revenue, even though the money had been deducted from their wages.
When he raised this with Bloxham, he was told that it could be the case that the company was paying PAYE annually.
Parr said this was the "straw that broke the camel's back" and resigned.
Bloxham told Parr and another employee they were in breach of their agreement because they had shared information about the company and their own personal situations with IRD with each other.
Parr went on to raise a personal grievance. Bloxham responded saying that Parr had abandoned his employment.
Authority member Davinnia Tan said Parr gave evidence that Bloxham and his company's actions had caused him significant anxiety. He was also worried about his future employment prospects.
Tan said the authority had been told the company would not participate in mediation, despite being directed to do so.
It did not appear at a case management conference or an investigation meeting.
Tan said the responses by Bloxham to Parr's concerns about the non-payment of PAYE were not of the calibre of a responsible or honest employer with oversight or who had made an inadvertent error.
"These deductions were made on every wage payment for almost 45 weeks' of Mr Parr's employment with Pocket Media with no evidence of payment to the IRD of Mr Parr's PAYE taxes.
"On the evidence available to the authority, the failure to pay the IRD from deductions made to Mr Parr's gross pay were deliberate.
"There is no ambiguity that this constituted a breach of Pocket Media's duty of good faith as required under s 4 of the Act, which extend beyond obligations of trust and confidence. The financial mismanagement was deliberate and deceitful, which Pocket Media benefited from at the expense of Mr Parr."
Parr's claim of unjustified constructive dismissal was successful.
Tan said $5670 should have been paid as PAYE to Inland Revenue, but that had to be dealt with by the Commissioner of Inland Revenue.
She said a copy of the determination would be sent to the department.
She said the jobs that Parr took after leaving did not pay well.
"During this time, he had to give up his flat due to an inability to continue rent payments and had to live with family.
"In a desperate effort to ensure he was not completely reliant on family for his livelihood, he accepted any role that he was successful in attaining quickly so there was incoming money.
"IRD records show that he earned a total of $7305.13 over the next three months.
"The harm caused by Pocket Media in these circumstances has been significant on Mr Parr.
"Having assessed Mr Parr's credibility and manner, the level of dejection and humiliation he felt from how his employment with Pocket Media ended was obvious."
Tan said compensation of $20,000 was appropriate. He was also due $8294.87 in lost wages.
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