Labourer awarded over $35,000 after employer stopped pay & left for Australia

A labourer whose wages were abruptly stopped after his employer travelled to Australia has been awarded more than $35,000 by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) for unjustified dismissal, Stuff has reported. 

The ERA ordered Christchurch-based Prestige Paving NZ Limited to pay former employee Cameron Keen a total of $35,017.68 after finding the company had effectively ended his employment by ceasing his pay and attempting to place him on leave without pay without his consent.

Keen worked as a labourer preparing driveways for tarmacadam paving between August 2024 and February 2025. During his employment, he regularly worked between nine and 12 hours a day and at times did not receive standard meal and tea breaks.

The employment relationship began to unravel after the company shut down for the Christmas holiday period in December 2024. Workers were told operations would resume on January 6, 2025, but work did not restart as expected.

Text message exchanges presented to the authority showed company director Jason Devine remained in Australia, initially telling Keen he had been involved in a car accident and suffered a back injury.

Without work or income, Keen was forced to apply for a welfare benefit. In February 2025, he came across an advertisement for an Australian business linked to Devine that was recruiting workers. Around the same time, he received an email from an unmanned company account advising that a one-month period of leave without pay had been approved, despite him never requesting such leave, Stuff reported.

Authority member David Beck found the company’s actions amounted to an unjustified dismissal.

In his determination, Beck said Keen had been “robbed of any agency in how the employment ended”, causing him genuine distress and humiliation, according to Stuff.

The authority heard that Keen was unable to secure permanent alternative employment and remained out of work at the time of the investigation meeting.

Prestige Paving NZ Limited did not participate in the ERA process. The company failed to attend mediation and took no part in the subsequent investigation meeting.

The company has since ceased trading. Its directors and equal shareholders, Jason Emanuaelle Devine and Levi Jai Devine, are believed to be living in Australia.

Despite the company no longer operating, the case proceeded after Keen’s advocate successfully challenged its removal from the New Zealand Companies Register.

The authority awarded Keen $12,000 in compensation for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings, $19,460.82 in unpaid and lost wages, $1,556.86 in holiday pay, and $3,000 towards legal costs.