Building company must pay ex-worker

A building company has been ordered to pay a former project manager nearly $20,000, after embarking on an unfair investigation into allegations about stealing material and setting up his own business.

Company directors failed to stay open-minded in their investigation, the Employment Relations Authority found.

The authority decision lays out that Andrew Lloyd worked for Alexander Construction as a project manager from 2015 until 2017.

He worked on projects on various sites, including Palmerston North Hospital and Massey University’s Manawatu¯ campus.

He received an email from Alexander Construction director, shareholder and Central region manager Murray Sneddon in January 2017.

In it, Sneddon advised Lloyd he was in danger of being fired without notice over some serious issues.

A contractor departing a project had allegedly approached Lloyd asking if Alexander Construction would be interested in pricing a project in Masterton.

That contractor alleged Lloyd told him to keep the matter quiet, because he and another Alexander Construction employee were about to go into business together and would be interested in doing the pricing.

There were also allegations about missing reinforcing steel from a different project.

After correspondence between Lloyd’s employment advocate and Alexander Construction, the company sent out a 70-page document expanding the original two issues to 36 allegations.

Those allegations fit under six broad categories: missing money; missing steel; missing timber framing; getting a former employee to undertake personal work on company time; falsifying timesheets; and the new business allegations.

The company declined Lloyd a chance to go through his company emails as part of making his response, mainly because of the allegations about going into competition.

Lloyd’s advocate provided a response in February, which contained explanations, denials and different views on all six issues.

There were emails back and forth between Sneddon and Lloyd’s advocate, which ended with Lloyd being dismissed for serious misconduct.

Lloyd subsequently lodged a personal grievance for unjustified disadvantage and dismissal.

Authority member Michael Loftus found Lloyd was unjustifiably disadvantaged by being suspended from work, as the steel theft matter had allegedly happened seven months prior, and the contractor was no longer on the project.

Loftus also found Sneddon and Lyon did not approach the investigation with an open mind, and found it to be ‘‘extremely flawed’’.

Alexander Construction must pay Lloyd $18,978.47.