Wellington mayoral candidate Graham Bloxham has been the subject of an Employment Relations Authority determination. Photo / Ethan Manera
A Wellington mayoral candidate has allegedly failed to pay the IRD more than $5000 in tax deducted from the wages of one of his employees.
According to an Employment Relations Authority (ERA) determination, $5670 was deducted from an employee of Pocket Media but was never paid to Inland Revenue.
The company’s director is Graham Bloxham, who is currently running for the mayoralty in Wellington. Pocket Media operates the Facebook page Wellington Live.
Joseph Parr filed a personal grievance with the ERA against Pocket Media on September 27, 2022, complaining about alleged unpaid IRD PAYE taxes.
He claimed that as a result, he had been constructively dismissed, unjustifiably disadvantaged and had wages owing to him.
Parr, who worked as head of digital marketing for Wellington Live, also alleged Bloxham created a toxic work environment and had subjected him to humiliating treatment by commenting on his appearance.
He further claimed his colleagues shared allegations that they had been sexually harassed by Bloxham and that he had allegedly made derogatory comments openly in the office about people.
Bloxham told NZME he denied all of the allegations.
While the sexual harassment claims or other allegations made by Parr relating to their being an alleged toxic work environment were not explored by the authority in its determination, it was found that Bloxham deliberately failed to pay the IRD from deductions made to Parr’s gross pay.
As a result, Bloxham has been ordered to pay Parr more than $28,000.
According to this week’s determination, Bloxham, who the ERA said did not engage with its investigation, employed Parr, a family friend, in November 2021.
However, in September the following year, Parr and other colleagues discovered that Bloxham had not submitted payday filing information to Inland Revenue during the period of their employment, the determination stated.
Parr raised the issue with Bloxham by email, it said.
“Graham, it has come to my attention that IRD has no idea that I’m working for you and has zero record of any taxes you’ve been deducting from my pay being sent to them. I don’t think I need to say how serious this is,” Parr wrote.
Bloxham responded by saying he would ask his accountant to look into it.
“I don’t pay this. It could be that we deal with PAYE annually.”
At an ERA hearing held this year, Parr said he felt he’d been blatantly lied to and it was the ”straw that broke the camel’s back”, resulting in his resignation.
Throughout several emails, Bloxham asked Parr if he would finish working the remaining two weeks as per his contract.
The ERA heard that in a separate email to Parr’s colleague, who had also inquired about her tax records, Bloxham stated that he paid PAYE quarterly.
“You’ve only worked for 5 minutes and it’s not set up yet. It will be and your tax will be paid! I suggest you stop all the conspiracy theories, following others and get on with your life,” he told the colleague.
Then, in another email to Parr and the colleague, Bloxham told them they were both in breach of their contracts by sharing information about him and his company with one another.
“I take anything about IRD really seriously and I will hold whoever is sharing information about me or my companies to account as it is an extremely serious allegation and the consequences are extremely severe,” Bloxham wrote.
In further correspondence from Bloxham provided to the ERA, he claimed to have “looked after” Parr.
“The more I look at you, the less I like. I looked after you, paid you well, gave you days off… what did I do to you to get this s***... You watch mate…”
Parr told the authority that Bloxham’s responses were typically defensive and critical when work-related issues were raised with him.
At the ERA hearing, Parr provided evidence that he was not given payslips for the 44 weeks he worked for Bloxham.
The ERA found that during Parr’s employment, $5670 was deducted from his wages by Pocket Media that should have been paid to the IRD.
While the authority doesn’t have the jurisdiction to assess and enforce tax payments and couldn’t award that missing sum back to Parr, authority member Davinnia Tan ordered that a copy of her judgment be sent to the IRD.
An IRD spokesperson said the Tax Administration Act prevented it from discussing the private tax affairs of any taxpayer and it couldn’t comment on whether or not an investigation was or was not under way.
Tan found that, on the evidence, the failure to pay the IRD from deductions made to Parr’s gross pay was deliberate.
“The financial mismanagement was deliberate and deceitful, which Pocket Media benefited from at the expense of Mr Parr.”
Tan said there was no evidence Bloxham had looked into the issue as promised and he’d acted in complete “denial and anger” towards Parr.
She also noted that withholding payment of PAYE taxes was unlawful and a serious breach of trust and confidence.
After his resignation, Parr took up several jobs at minimum wage in order to pay his bills.
He had to give up his flat and move in with his family, the ERA heard.
The ERA ordered Bloxham to pay Parr $8294.87 in lost wages and $20,000 in compensation.
“The harm caused by Pocket Media in these circumstances has been significant on Mr Parr,” Tan said in the determination.
“He was humiliated by having to rely on family and low-paying jobs to get by and distressed by the fact Mr Bloxham had, until the dispute arose, been a longstanding family friend.
“The hurt and humiliation was further exacerbated by Mr Bloxham’s failures of good faith to engage constructively and act with accountability when the issue was brought to his attention.”
When speaking with NZME today, Bloxham claimed he had not heard from the ERA and the ruling was a shock to him.
He claimed he had engaged an employment advocate who had told him Parr’s claim had “gone away”.
“That obviously hasn’t happened so I’ll just have to deal with it,” he said.
Bloxham denied failing to file Parr’s PAYE tax with IRD.
“All of our tax is paid up, all of our PAYE is paid up, that’s just incorrect.”
Bloxham maintained that Parr was a contractor and needed to file his own taxes.
However, Parr told NZME the ERA ruling was vindicating.
“Fundamentally, the whole reason I went to the ERA was that I just wanted confirmation that I was justified in leaving,” he said.
“It’s nice to have it legally cleared up that it was okay to leave that environment.”
Parr said he felt it was a shame Bloxham hadn’t engaged with the authority.
“It’s just disappointing that he did it in the first place, and to a family friend.
“Outwardly denying that he did anything wrong, it would be nice to have some accountability and acknowledgment from him.”
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.