18 months on, still no compensation
Sacked car salesman Shakeel Gill has been waiting for more than 18 months to receive more than $11,800 in compensation for an employment dispute three years ago.
In March 2018, the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) ordered Navin Dutt Sharma, the co-owner of South Auckland Vehicle Imports, to pay Gill $17,300 for a number of employment breaches including an unjustified dismissal and wage arrears. He was also fined $8000 for breaking the law.
But just weeks after the authority’s decision, Sharma’s company was placed into liquidation.
Earlier this month the authority made Sharma, the sole director of the business, personally liable and reduced Gill’s awards to $11,825 after the liquidator confirmed South Auckland Vehicle Imports was in debt of more than $600,000.
But Sharma has been trading cars, in his own name, on Facebook’s Marketplace website.
Sharma has been approached for comment. In 2016 Gill, received two warning letters for ‘‘inadequate grooming’’ of cars, and was sacked a day after the second warning. Although Gill was not hired to groom cars, he was made to do so because the business was not doing well.
Grooming one car took three hours on average, and Gill also complained of not being able to keep up with the amount of work he was required to do.
While the authority found Gill’s poor performance contributed to him receiving warnings, South Auckland Vehicle Imports failed to carry out the dismissal process fairly.
‘‘Gill was not given proper notice, a chance to be represented, and a chance to explain and have any explanation considered before the decision was made,’’ authority member Nicola Craig said. The ERA is an independent organisation that sits below the Employment Court.
South Auckland Vehicle Imports appointed receivers in 2017 and liquidators in April last year. Liquidator Imran Kamal’s first report said the company traded ‘‘averagely from the beginning’’ and succumbed to substantial debt. Kamal said he would file an application for Sharma to appear at the High Court in Auckland early next year.