Dealership cops $41k penalty
A Christchurch dealership has been ordered to pay more than $41,000 to a former employee who quit after a meeting in which the director compared him to a “cancer”.
The Employment Relations Authority found Easy Way Group Limited (EWG) unjustifiably disadvantaged and constructively dismissed Blair Ryan Leonard, who felt he had been demoted from the role of a car salesman to a “glorified car groomer”.
In a determination on November 9, authority member Antoinette Baker ordered the company pay Leonard $41,464.40, which included $20,000 in compensation, $13,848 gross in lost wages and $7,616.40 for leave entitlements.
Leonard began working for Easy Way Group in February 2021 as a used vehicle and finance/insurance salesperson.
In August 2023, amid financial problems and poor car sales at the business, Leonard understood the company wanted to reduce its sales staff. The next month he took on an “admin manager” role that he said he only accepted because he thought he would otherwise be made redundant.
“Leonard says that soon after he started in the ‘admin manager’ role it turned out in reality to be a ‘demotion’, to be a ‘glorified car groomer’,” adds the determination.
“Importantly to him the role turned out not to include what he says he had been promised by his direct EWG manager, Cade Harris.
“Leonard says he was promised by Harris that in accepting the ‘admin manager’ role he would go on buying trips to Japan every two to three months. EWG says this was never agreed to.”
Leonard considered the tasks of his new role beneath him as he spent much of his time moving vehicles, car grooming and doing things others did not want to do
The company’s sole director Sean Bisset emailed all-staff in October 2023 stating a new salesman had been employed and that Leonard and another staff member must not “leave the yard without” the new employee’s consent.
Leonard was “very upset” by the email and raised a personal grievance in the middle of that month before going on stress leave from October 20, after which he never returned to work.
A meeting was held in March 2024, which was attended by Leonard, his lawyer Aliza Eveleigh, and company representatives including Bisset and Harris.
The authority accepted Eveleigh’s handwritten notes from the meeting that suggested a number of unfair comments were made by Bisset, such as there was no job for Leonard to return to, that “cancer we don’t need to have back here” and that EWG “can’t have people with your character in the organisation”.
Leonard resigned through his lawyer by email on March 28, 2024. Bisset did not recall receiving the message, maintained Leonard had not quit and remained on unpaid leave, and said his use of the word “cancer” was just a metaphor.
Baker rejected those claims and found EWG breached its duty of good faith and Leonard was disadvantaged in his employment and constructively dismissed.
“I accept there was humiliation and a loss of dignity for Leonard in the workplace after he accepted his varied role and then discovered soon after potentially through the employer’s communication that the seniority he had reasonably expected was not being honoured by the employer.”
She said she was also satisfied Leonard did not contribute to the circumstances of the grievance to warrant any reduction in his remedies.
