MP’S husband has history of employment disputes
Employer says past ERA cases ‘should not be related’ to current allegation
The husband of a stooddown Green MP, who is embroiled in an employment dispute with a migrant claiming he was exploited, is tied to a history of Employment Relations Authority (ERA) battles involving companies he runs.
MP Darleen Tana was suspended last Thursday amid allegations she was linked to alleged exploitation at her husband Christian Hoff-nielsen’s bicycle company.
Green Party leaders said the allegations raised a conflict of interest with Tana’s small business portfolio.
Hoff-nielsen denied all the exploitation allegations at the time and told the Herald, “this is not a news story, there is no news”.
Yesterday, he again addressed past instances where he was found by the ERA to have never paid an employee and fired another “on the spot”, resulting in his companies having to pay tens of thousands of dollars in compensation and unpaid wages to the two men.
One of the successful complainants told the ERA Hoffnielsen was “difficult to work with” and maintained a “dysfunctional employment relationship”.
Hoff-nielsen told the Herald these past cases “should not be related” to his ongoing dispute with Santiago Latour Palma.
He continued to dispute the ERA’S past decisions against his businesses and believed those cases had made him “easy prey” for other potentially disgruntled employees.
He also believed Palma’s complaint and subsequent media coverage were because of his wife’s position as a member of Parliament.
The first ERA determination was on September 15 last year, when an employee raised a personal grievance saying he was “fired on the spot” from E Cycles NZ Ltd without warning on June 4.
The employee, Nick Scott, was called into a meeting with Hoffnielsen about issues at work.
The ERA’S decision read: “[Scott] had formed a strong view within his first few weeks of work that the workplace was not well-organised and he found Mr Hoff-nielsen difficult to work for. [Scott] saw [it] as a dysfunctional employment relationship.”
Scott said the meeting was heated and recalled Hoff-nielsen telling him to “just finish the day and then you’re done”.
Hoff-nielsen contested that he had fired Scott, telling the ERA he thought Scott had resigned by “abandoning the workplace” after the discussion.
The ERA, however, accepted Scott had been fired. The ERA said while Hoff-nielsen was entitled to raise concerns with Scott about the performance of his duties, he acted unfairly.
“[The] defect in the process Mr Hoff-nielsen followed was more than minor and resulted in Mr Scott being treated unfairly,” the decision read.
The ERA said a reasonable employer could not have “called it quits” without giving its employee time to address any concerns and having the employer genuinely consider them.
For the unjustified dismissal, the ERA ordered E Cycles NZ Ltd to pay Scott almost $23,000 to settle his personal grievance. This involved $7962.50 for lost wages and $15,000 compensation for humiliation, loss of dignity, and injury to feelings.
Scott told the Herald: “I just want to move on and put all this behind me and move forward. All I wanted was to work, earn money and do something I enjoyed, and all of that went out the window.”
Scott’s lawyer Alex Kersjes said he had attempted to come to an agreement with Hoff-nielsen to pay the ordered costs. E Cycles NZ then tried reopening the case with the ERA, claiming its determination in favour of Scott was a “miscarriage of justice”.
The company and Hoff-nielsen said they had difficulties preparing for the authority’s investigation and providing evidence.
The company complained about Hoff-nielsen not being involved in a case management conference as part of the ERA’S investigation into Scott’s claims. However, Hoff-nielsen earlier said he did not want to participate, the ERA said.
The ERA said Hoff-nielsen also used his contact with a Covid19-infected person as an excuse to get out of an investigation meeting and “Mr Hoff-nielsen was taken at his word”. A postponed meeting was pushed back further as Hoff-nielsen said he would be in another ERA investigation meeting for his company in Blenheim.
The ERA said this was untrue: “There were not two authority meetings scheduled on the same day.”
The ERA declined E Cycles NZ’S application to reopen the case.
“[E Cycles NZ] had not established a real or substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice that would have warranted granting its application for reopening,” its decision said.
Around the same time Hoffnielsen’s E Cycles Ltd was embroiled in the issue with Scott, another of his companies, Green Wheels Blenheim Ltd, was in front of the ERA for not paying employee Chuck Simpson.
Simpson said he hadn’t been paid for his work. Hoff-nielsen said this was because the company had not employed him, but had put him on a “period of due diligence” where Simpson would learn about the business before potentially buying it.
The ERA concluded Simpson was working for an employer “in the accepted sense” and the owed wages he had claimed were due.
The ERA ordered Hoff-nielsen to pay Simpson more than $6000, less income taxes.
“It’s bizarre” Winston Peters continues to use Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping song despite being publicly asked not to, the band’s singer says.
The Deputy Prime Minister played the British anarchist punk band’s bestknown song again on Wednesday while avoiding reporters’ questions.
“Is he just being antagonistic about it now? Is that his thing?” one of Chumbawamba’s founding members and Tubthumping singer Dunstan Bruce told First Up.
He said it seemed Peters did not understand what Chumbawamba stood for “and how egregious we think his political views are”.
“It’s bizarre. The more he does it, the more that we respond.”
Peters was not the first right-wing politician to use the song, he said.
“Nigel Farage used it in the UK. After he had a plane crash, he started using the song, we had to sort of tell him to stop using it.”
Politicians in Australia and the US had tried to use it too, he said.
Bruce said the song was about “working class resilience and coming together in communities that were sort of accepting of different people’s political views and different people’s ethnic backgrounds”.
“When we found out that he was espousing ideas about antiimmigration policies — it just was so against everything that that song actually stands for.
“It’s a ridiculous misuse of the song because the song is about resilience and community, and the idea that we can fight back against the state and the forces that are keeping us down.”
The band had asked its record label to intervene with a cease and desist letter. “We can sue him, I suppose, if we so wish, or if the record label or the publishing company decide that that’s the best way to stop him using the song,” Bruce said.
Every time Peters used the song, the band would have the opportunity to disagree with his views, he said.
“If he thinks that’s good publicity for him, then, you know, ‘fill your boots’.”
Peters has denied reports he has been asked by the band to stop playing the song at his rallies.
Chumbawamba previously said it seemed “entirely odd” that the “I get knocked down” refrain was being used by Peters “as he barks his divisive, small-minded, bigoted policies during his recent speeches”.
“Chumbawamba would like to make it clear that we did not give permission for Peters to use the song and would ask him to stop using it to try to shore up his misguided political views.” —RNZ