Organ transplant recipient Makena Houston and her mother, Tracey Richardson. Makena died in August, midway through a bitter employment dispute.
A grieving mother never believed her daughter’s last fight would be mired in a bitter workplace dispute.
Tracey Richardson always thought her bright and courageous daughter, who fought and endured a lifetime of health challenges, might have died fighting for a better future rather than battling a boss over a job.
A champion for cystic fibrosis sufferers, organ transplant recipient Makena Houston died in August, just three weeks shy of her 33rd birthday. At the time, she was challenging her former employer over non-payment of wages.
“I expected her last fight to be a health battle, like advocating for a second transplant, or for medical services she was denied, but definitely not fighting people," said Richardson.
“She generally avoided conflict and would walk away from arguments,” Richardson told NZME.
This month, Houston has succeeded posthumously in getting justice.
The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has ordered Auckland public relations firm Lily & Louis Limited to pay $24,287 in compensation, penalties and back pay, most of which goes to Houston’s estate, and a portion to the Crown.
Partway through its investigation process this year, fraught by delays linked to health challenges suffered by the PR firm’s sole director and chief executive, Jacqui Ansin, employment advocate Dave Cain advised the ERA Houston had died.
He asked that the matter continue with Richardson acting as legal personal representative, and he as representative.
Richardson said even as her daughter was on her deathbed after emergency surgery for complications linked to her organ transplants, she begged that the fight be seen through to the end.
“Two days before she died, when it was clear that she wasn’t going to survive and she had moved to a hospice, she said to me, ‘Could you please get hold of Dave and find out what happens when I die?’”
Richardson told NZME her daughter’s death was expected, but it hadn’t been imminent.
“Someone who’s born with cystic fibrosis and who’s a double lung transplant and a kidney transplant recipient always has a shortened life expectancy,” she explained.
Houston told NZME in 2019 about the arduous journey of recovery from a double-lung transplant, and her hopes for the future.
Since then, she gained a Degree in Communications, majoring in public relations, spent time in Australia and lived life to the full.
“She loved the stage. She loved to sing. She loved musical theatre. She did several shows in New Zealand before leaving for Australia.”
She also loved the sun, beaches and boats, but the most important thing in her life was her friends.
“She had a really huge friend group, and she was very social,” Richardson said.
In a decision released this month, ERA member Helen van Druten said an aggravating factor leading to her findings was that Houston was managing life-threatening medical issues at the time, and Ansin, the firm’s CEO, knew this.
Houston was living in Auckland and was approached by Ansin about a work opportunity in late 2023.
She had previously worked there and enjoyed it, the ERA said.
Richardson said she worked for Ansin as an intern while studying.
“Lily & Louis was definitely a place where she wanted to work, and she did really admire Jacqui.”
Houston signed back on in May 2024 as a part-time salaried senior publicist, on the understanding she planned to return to Australia in September.
Richardson said it seemed an ideal situation, including that Houston was able to work remotely from home because of her health challenges.
However, in the nine weeks she worked before resigning, she wasn’t paid, despite repeated requests, until the day before an investigation meeting was scheduled.
It was then that an arbitrary $3663 “curiously” appeared in her bank account, van Druten said.
Ansin denied she had failed to pay. She had genuinely wanted to, but said she was placed in an “impossible position” through Houston’s request for payment by Prezzy card (prepaid gift card).
Houston denied that she insisted on the payment form, but later agreed to it as a way to get paid.
Ansin told the ERA that because Houston was receiving Work and Income payments at the time, it amounted to potential benefit fraud, so she was justified in withholding wage payments.
Van Druten said it was up to Work and Income to investigate benefit eligibility, and that did not allow an employer to withhold wages due.
Richardson said Houston never hid the fact that she was receiving assistance, but so too were people allowed to earn while on a benefit.
Van Druten rejected Ansin’s argument over the Prezzy card. She said Houston had provided her bank payment details on the first day of employment, and at any time, Ansin was able to pay Houston through usual payroll channels and direct bank payment.
When Houston started in May, there were verbal discussions about hours of work and pay but no employment agreement was signed by the parties, van Druten said.
When Houston resigned on July 17, Ansin replied by asking her to return a laptop computer “immediately” and threatened to “report her to IRD” for asking for payment by a Prezzy card.
Van Druten referenced the “inherent inequality of power” in the relationship, enhanced by Ansin’s connections with the media.
She said Ansin demonstrated her willingness to exercise that power in a text to Houston on April 29 and a “pointed email” on May 15, saying she would “advise the newspapers about the serious misconduct of [Houston].”
Houston raised a personal grievance soon after quitting, with a claim for unpaid wages and other entitlements from May 13 to July 12, being 108 hours worked, plus interest.
Houston also said she was given false assurances that payment was coming.
In an email sent on July 15, she offered to send an invoice for the hours worked because she was desperate to be paid, van Druten said.
She said the impact on Houston was evident in communication asking Ansin to honour the agreement they had.
“I am very stressed and sickened by the week-on-week, continual stalling of this matter. Not to mention my own unpaid bills that are weighing on me,” Houston wrote.
Richardson described the drastic change in Houston’s mood and behaviour to the extent that she needed psychological support.
“At one point, she just wanted to give up and walk away from the whole thing, but then her principled self wouldn’t allow her to do that.”
Van Druten said the emotional impact on mother and daughter was evident during her questioning of them both.
She also noted Houston was not well during the investigation meeting, and her subsequent death had made the investigation “most challenging”.
Richardson said the stress certainly took a toll.
“I wouldn’t say that it created a spiral to the end, but ... she just didn’t need that s**t as well as everything else that she was dealing with.
“It was avoidable.”
After Houston had raised her grievance with the authority, an investigation meeting that began on July 9 was adjourned that afternoon for health reasons related to Ansin.
It was to have resumed on August 20, but medical information required from Ansin was not received despite efforts from counsel to get it.
The investigation meeting was adjourned again to consider an application for an indefinite stay of proceedings, which the ERA declined after assessing the information it was provided, plus feedback from Houston.
A further call was set down with the parties on August 26.
Houston died on August 27.
On September 2, counsel for the PR firm and for Ansin withdrew and advised that Ansin would represent herself.
Lily & Louis claimed Houston was not dismissed, but chose to resign.
Van Druten said that was correct in law, except where an employer’s behaviour or other actions placed an employee in a position where they felt they had no choice but to resign.
In establishing a causal link that led to Houston’s resignation, van Druten said the breach of duty by Ansin was sufficiently serious.
She said Ansin’s conduct was “more than inconsiderate” and could not be explained as the actions of a forgetful manager; instead it was “actively misleading”.
Van Druten said Ansin’s responses to Houston’s queries were dismissive and contained actively false, written assurances that payment was being sorted, when it wasn’t.
The firm also failed to provide any employment agreement.
It led to the ERA’s finding of constructive dismissal. Houston was also found to have been unjustifiably disadvantaged by the employer’s failure to pay her agreed hours worked.
In awarding $12,000 in compensation as part of the total, van Druten said Houston’s loss of confidence, distress and injury to feelings was exacerbated by her medical condition and Ansin’s knowledge of that vulnerability.
Lily & Louis Limited was ordered to pay $19,287 to Houston’s estate and $5000 to the Crown in penalties and lost wages.
Richardson said it was a just outcome for her daughter.
“She’s advocated for herself her entire life, and to advocate right to the end for what was right and the way it should be – I’m proud of her for that.”
The ERA also ordered that Ansin, as second respondent, would be personally liable if the company did not pay the wage arrears owed or penalties awarded.
Ansin told NZME in a brief statement that the authority had issued its determination and the matter was being treated as a resolved legacy employment issue between the parties.
“I don’t wish to comment further,” she said.
Richardson said that so far the order had not been paid, but until then, she did not want to speculate on how it might be put to use.
As executor of her daughter’s estate, she would do what was needed to ensure the authority’s order was abided by.
For Richardson, the work to raise awareness of cystic fibrosis and advocate for those with the disease continued.
When NZME spoke with her this week, she was cycle-touring in France, en route to Britain to spend Christmas with family there, including her son. He was also an organ transplant recipient because he too had been born with cystic fibrosis.
“A very wise doctor once told me that everybody who has a transplant dies, but so does everyone else.
“The difference is that people with transplants actually get the opportunity to be well and to enjoy their lives through being given a second chance,” Richardson said.
“All I ever really wanted for them was to get that chance, and they both grabbed it. There’s no doubt Makena lived a very full post-transplant life.”
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.