Waikato plumber who employed mate on home detention taken to task over ‘sacking’

A plumber who gave his mate a job to help him get a head start while on home detention ended up fighting him after the worker claimed he'd been sacked. Photo / 123RF

A plumber who helped his mate get a head start while the man was on home detention soon found himself fighting the trainee, who claimed he’d been sacked.

Jason Harder, who has a history of dishonesty offending, and Chad Still, who runs his own plumbing business, had been friends since about 2013, but things came to a head after a serious argument while on a job on school grounds in 2021.

Harder complained he was unjustifiably dismissed while the company argued he had already abandoned his employment and repudiated the employment agreement. To clarify matters it then formally gave him notice that the employment had finished.

The Employment Relations Authority has now ruled Harder was not dismissed, and therefore his grievance was not established, but it did issue a penalty against Still’s business, UR Plumber Waikato, for making unlawful wage deductions.

The Employment Relations Authority says a trainee plumber taken on by a long-time friend was not dismissed, but that the company had deducted wages unlawfully. Photo / 123RF

ERA member Nicola Craig said in her decision released last week that the lead-up to the end of Harder’s employment appeared to be an altercation on July 9, 2021, at a school where UR Plumber was carrying out work.

The ERA noted it was only a month after Still had been off work because he and his wife had lost a child.

A heated exchange followed Still’s request for Harder to clean up the work van, which required a builder to step in when fists were raised.

Harder then disappeared for a few days, prompting Still to consider the possibility he had abandoned his job, but eventually agreed to allow him back to work.

The last straw involved Harder’s planned attendance at polytechnic training courses, and the length of time he claimed he needed which was different from what had been agreed, the ERA said.

After a lot of communication between the pair, Still emailed Harder on August 25, 2021, telling him the company had decided to terminate his contract.

The email referenced Harder’s “attitude, verbal abuse and deliberately disobeying instructions and trying to fight the business owner”.

Harder argued the dismissal was unjustified, based partly on a “sending away” text from Still which said: “It’s been a long time coming my bro this just ain’t the place for employment for you ...”

The ERA ultimately concluded there was no dismissal, based on the finding there had been an agreement between the pair that the employment would end over an apparent variation in Harder’s course requirements to those originally agreed.

Still and Harder met at Wintec during plumbing and gas fitting training in 2013.

Still finished his apprenticeship and set up a business, initially in Hawke’s Bay before he and his wife moved back to Hamilton and started UR Plumber Waikato Limited.

Harder failed to complete the course and was convicted in May 2017 of trading as an unregistered plumber.

The friends’ work relationship began in 2020 when Harder was released from prison into home detention on a separate matter, and sent Still a text message, asking about the possibility of work.

Harder knew that it would be “almost impossible” to get a job given his criminal history and the fact he was on home detention.

The ERA referenced a probation report which noted Harder’s “extensive history of dishonesty offending” related to a long period of drug addiction, which he went public about in a media article in 2019.

Harder had initially agreed to be interviewed by NZME, but later declined.

However, he expressed disappointment in the ERA’s decision, and that it had been a “waste of two years” going back and forth to court.

The ERA said when Harder approached Still about the possibility of work, UR Plumber had reservations, not only because of Harder’s history but because the small business didn’t think there might be sufficient work for an apprentice.

However, Still wanted to help Harder by offering him some work experience to assist with the completion of his qualification.

He “pushed very hard” to get the approval needed from the Probation Service for Harder to leave the house.

An “Employment Agreement – Home Detention/Residential Restrictions” was signed off in late August 2020 with the Probation Service.

Harder said the agreement was that he would work for tools. Still did not accept that but acknowledged he offered to make Harder a full-time employee at the start of 2021, assuming there was enough business.

The authority noted Harder’s willingness to offer a “free service” to UR Plumber to get his foot in the door to becoming a qualified plumber.

Harder claimed he was employed as an apprentice by UR Plumber from September 2020.

The business said Harder was volunteering effectively on a work experience type programme, until early February 2021 when he became an employee.

Harder was not paid regular wages but remained on a benefit, then in late January 2021 he was offered an employment agreement, at $30 an hour Harder insisted instead of the $26 or $27 an hour offered.

Both parties contacted the Ministry of Social Development [MSD] about possible funding arrangements, in ways that suggested neither regarded the 2020 arrangement as employment, the authority said.

It also said there was evidence pointing to the postponement of a formal start date by agreement to allow for payment of an MSD grant for a basic tool set, which Harder received in early 2021.

While Harder did not initially expect to receive payment for the work he did, there was a dispute about an expectation of reward in goods.

The ERA concluded Harder failed to establish an agreement over this, and that he was a volunteer up to the point he was formally employed in February 2021.

But it did accept there were occasions in 2020 when the company benefited from Harder’s work, because by then he had completed a substantial part of the plumbing training and was able to undertake work without constant supervision.

On the question of whether UR Plumber could legitimately make deductions for tools, Still said the business tried to help employees out by getting them set up with tools, and making deductions for these was standard practice in the industry.

The ERA found the evidence regarding the receipt of tools was not particularly satisfactory, but that according to the law, wages had to be paid without deductions unless the employee consented.

There was no consent in this case, the business was ordered to pay Harder $1100 for what it deemed were unlawful deductions, and a $500 penalty to the Crown.

Still was approached for comment through his lawyer, but has so far declined to respond.