Kaipara Deputy Mayor Jonathan Larsen (right), pictured with the district's mayor, Craig Jepson, took the Whangārei Fire station to the ERA over a senior role position. Photo / Susan Botting
Kaipara Deputy Mayor Jonathan Larsen (right), pictured with the district's mayor, Craig Jepson, took the Whangārei Fire station to the ERA over a senior role position. Photo / Susan Botting
A six-year employment battle stemming from a Fire and Emergency New Zealand worker’s transfer from Auckland to a role at Northland’s leading fire headquarters looks set to continue.
Jonathan Larsen, the deputy mayor of the Kaipara District Council, has indicated he will apply to appeal a recentEmployment Court decision which found against him in his dispute with Fire and Emergency NZ.
Now, he has suggested he will try to continue the dispute, which centres on whether Fire and Emergency NZ was justified in putting him on unpaid leave, in the Court of Appeal.
Larsen, who joined Fire and Emergency NZ in 1999, had served in various roles and was a station officer at St Hellier’s station in Auckland by 2017.
The station officer role leads a firefighter crew, providing direction, assigning work and managing fire crews and is a highly sought-after role for career progression amongst firefighters.
That year, he applied for a transfer on compassionate grounds to a station officer role in Whangārei, however, his application was declined after an interview.
In response, Larsen raised a personal grievance with Fire and Emergency NZ, requesting that the role be held open until his grievance was addressed, but Fire and Emergency NZ refused.
Larsen then filed a statement of problem with the ERA in 2018, and, through mediation, an agreement known as a Record of Settlement (RoS) was reached.
The RoS stipulated Larsen would commence duties as a station officer in Whangārei no later than November 2020, with the possibility of starting earlier if a position became available.
Jonathan Larsen has announced he will run for Mayor of the Kaipara district.
On May 15, 2019, Fire and Emergency NZ offered Larsen a permanent role at Whangārei, which he accepted.
However, a month after Larsen resigned from his current role, the New Zealand Professional Fire Union (NZPFU) raised a dispute claiming Fire and Emergency NZ had breached employment guidelines by not putting the position out to others as required.
Larsen advised that he could not start his role until the dispute was sorted.
On July 1, 2019, he went on paid sick leave, which continued for 22 months.
Opportunities refused
During that period, he was offered eight secondment opportunities as a station officer and in training roles, which he declined.
After more than a year on paid sick leave, Fire and Emergency NZ informed Larsen it would be undertaking a medical review of his fitness to work, and he was cleared to work from April 29, 2021.
That same day, Larsen was directed to report to his role at St Heliers pending the outcome of the ERA investigation.
But he did not turn up and Fire and Emergency NZ put him on unpaid leave.
Larsen contested that the directive that he report to St Heliers was unlawful.
He then raised several personal grievances against Fire and Emergency NZ, including that it allegedly failed to place him in Whangārei and did not pay him when he was ready to work.
The grievances were heard by the ERA in November 2023, and resulted in the authority finding against Larsen.
The ERA found Fire and Emergency NZ was justified in putting him on unpaid leave and had acted in good faith when Larsen had not.
The appeal
Larsen went on to challenge the ERA decision in the Employment Court.
He argued that Fire and Emergency NZ was unjustified in putting him on unpaid leave and he sought back pay and remedies.
At the Employment Court hearing in February, Geoff Davenport, lawyer for Fire and Emergency NZ, noted the many offers made to Larsen were met with no explanation as to why he would not accept the roles.
Larsen told the court he had not accepted the roles as they were temporary and any acceptance may have undermined his permanent position in Whangārei.
Davenport pointed out that any payout the court may direct must take into account 22 months of paid sick leave that had been paid at the same time he was receiving earnings as a councillor at the Kaipara District Council from 2019 to 2023.
Larsen claimed he had become isolated and withdrawn because of the employment process, but Davenport told the court that this was contrary to his ongoing engagement at council meetings throughout the time period.
Employment Court judge Joanna Holden agreed with the ERA decision and in her recently released decision noted Fire and Emergency NZ was right to place him on unpaid leave given the multiple attempts to find a resolution.
“It is evident that throughout those attempts Fenz was endeavouring to balance its conflicting obligations in a fair and reasonable way,” Judge Holden said in her judgement.
“With Mr Larsen saying that he would not be applying for future roles in Whangārei, and would not continue at St Helier’s, things were at an impasse.
“This was particularly the case because Mr Larsen did not explain to Fenz why he was not prepared to accept any of the offers that would have facilitated him being placed in Whangārei.”
Larsen’s appeal was unsuccessful and Judge Holden has ordered him to pay Fire and Emergency NZ’s legal costs.
Simon Mitchell, KC, lawyer for Larsen, said in a statement to NZME that Larsen considered the Employment Court judgement incorrect, both in fact and law.
Mitchell said at no time was his client on paid sick leave, which would have precluded him from attending meetings at the Kaipara District Council.
He said Larsen had instructed him to seek leave to appeal and would not make any further comment until the Court of Appeal had determined the issue.
Ron Devlin, Te Hiku regional manager for Fire and Emergency NZ, told NZME he could not comment on individual employment matters.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.
