Abused worker on move

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An engineer who was awarded $94,000 after being told to go s*** in a corner by his boss says he may have to leave the country.

James Irvine worked for Timaru-based company Andar Holdings for several years before it was sold to engineering firm Wallace & Cooper. He stayed on as the company's sales and marketing manager on a salary of $150,000 a year.

According to an Employment Relations Authority decision released this week, two days after he signed a contract in June last year, Irvine had a run-in with managing director Gary Cross because he had not been paid.

The employment authority heard that Cross told him in a phone call: "You're no longer in the front corner office. You are now in the back office! You are a piece of s*** and you do exactly what I tell you! If I tell you to s*** in a corner you s*** in a f****** corner!" Cross denied he said this, claiming he told Irvine: "If you're told to sit in the corner, then you sit in the corner."

On another occasion, Cross told Irvine: "You're just a f****** sniveller."

Irvine told the Herald on Sunday his career prospects were almost certainly finished in the area where he was living.

"I will probably never get a job here in Timaru of any relevance so I will probably move to Australia," he said. "I am not sure I want to do that. I have my family here and my farm here."

Irvine, 49, said he was still affected by the abuse. "I am traumatised."

He said he bore no ill feeling towards Cross. "He is who he is and sometimes there's a clash of codes and that's it. I mean, people do swear, but there's a big difference between that and blatant abuse."

Irvine said the tirade came from Cross at an already difficult time.

"When this argument happened, my wife had to go to hospital because she had a heart murmur," he said. "They rang up and said 'Can you come over now' because they thought they had to open her up. So I dropped everything and went there. I never saw Cross, but when I got back I thought I'd better tell him why I hoofed out of the building without any explanation and that I hadn't just gone shopping. So when I told him, 'By the way, I haven't been paid' then the whole thing went pear-shaped. It was an afternoon from hell."

Irvine said taking the case to the employment authority had been exhausting and might still be appealed.

"It is expensive. It has nearly taken a year to the day. You are under scrutiny. It is a huge distraction, it puts pressure on your life, on your family.

"You feel like you are the culprit when you go through cross-examination. It's long, it's complicated and who knows if it's over yet. It might go on for another year."

Gary Cross refused to take a phone call from the Herald on Sunday.