• Diederik and Elsje van Heerden were both made redundant from Longevity Construction in January 2024.
• They faced severe financial hardship, selling possessions and exhausting savings meant for a house deposit.
• Diederik was awarded $207,000 in remedies for the way the dismissal was handled, but doubts he’ll receive it.

A husband and wife who lost their jobs with a construction company at the same time say the last 14 months have been the ultimate test of their marriage and their family.

Diederik (Didi) van Heerden and his wife, Elsje, have burned through their savings after being made redundant from Auckland firm Longevity Construction in January 2024.

The couple had aimed to use those savings for a deposit on a house, but Didi van Heerden says they’re now back at square one, still renting and likely to be for some time.

“We had a plan set up for our future, you know, buy a small freestanding property and build our own little house as I go.”

Van Heerden had to sell the family’s possessions to pay bills, his credit cards were maxed out, and all loan opportunities had been exhausted.

“There were times I didn’t even know where our bread and milk was going to come from.”

He said there were days when the family didn’t eat, but he remained grateful to those who, out of the blue, provided food parcels. Some even gave cash, including, on one occasion, $500.

“I’ll tell you what, $500 was like a million dollars for us.”

Van Heerden also used a family inheritance to pay for living costs, meaning he now has no retirement funds as he heads towards 60.

“Twenty-five years of marriage nearly went through the window twice. I packed my bags the first time and she packed her bags the second time.

“They say that, when financial problems walk in, love walks out the back door, but we stood together and we put our heads together, and here we are,” he told NZME.

A new life in NZ

The family arrived in New Zealand from South Africa a decade ago and set up a business, Maintenance Refurbishments and Installations.

Longevity first engaged van Heerden in 2021 to work as an independent contractor, until he was employed fulltime as the firm’s construction operational manager in May 2023.

At that point, he had to forfeit his clients, as he was the main contractor for Longevity.

Elsje worked as Longevity’s project assistant. In January 2024, they were called into a meeting and told on the spot that their jobs had gone, because the renovation side of the business had closed.

Didi van Heerden said it was like “having our throats cut”.

The pair each raised unjustified dismissal claims with the Employment Relations Authority, before Elsje managed to settle her case.

She managed to find a new job, but her income did not cover the family’s living expenses.

Didi was trying to get his business running again, but it was tough in a depressed climate for building.

He has since been successful in his dispute with Longevity and its sole director, Anthony Corin, and was awarded a total of $207,000 in remedies for his unjustified dismissal.

However, he’s not counting on seeing a cent of it. “The chances are low,” he said.

Property developer and construction firm owner Anthony Corin plans to appeal against the ERA decision in Didi van Heerden's favour.

An application was recently made to the High Court to liquidate Longevity, which was to be reviewed again by the court at the end of this month.

The ERA thought it prudent to grant van Heerden leave to recover his wage arrears and other money from Corin personally, if Longevity defaulted on paying.

The company was also ordered to pay interest on any part of the $207,408 that van Heerden had not received by the deadline this month.

The remedies included $166,000 for lost remuneration, almost $5000 in lost benefit to his KiwiSaver fund, $35,000 in stress compensation, and $2000 in penalties split between the company and Corin, as second respondent.

Director responsible for ‘serious breaches’

The ERA determined that Corin was personally responsible for Longevity’s breaches of van Heerden’s employment agreement.

They included the company unlawfully deducting $3000 from his final pay, without telling him, and failing to pay him for his last day of work.

Authority member Rachel Larmer said they were “serious breaches of minimum code legislation”.

She said the penalty imposed needed to signal to all employers the importance of adhering to minimum obligations, the most important of which was paying employees correctly and on time.

“Longevity acted in a high-handed and unlawful manner by failing to pay an employee whom it had just made redundant correctly and on time,” Larmer said.

Didi van Heerden has been unable to find another job in the building industry since being made redundant in January 2024. Photo / 123rf

She said it was not until the authority became involved that van Heerden was repaid the $3000 deducted.

Corin told NZME he intended to appeal against the decision and that he would “not be paying” van Heerden a cent.

“It [the decision] is completely over the top. The company ran out of work and I kept them on as long as possible while trying to find work while informing them of the situation on a daily basis,” Corin claimed.

Larmer said that Corin told van Heerden at the January redundancy meeting that he could become an independent contractor, but then failed to follow through on it.

The next month, Corin offered van Heerden the position of site manager on a specific project. However, after van Heerden questioned aspects of the role, he was told the company had changed its mind, and Corin withdrew the offer.

Corin told NZME the “punishment does not fit the crime” and alleged he had been framed by earlier media coverage.

Van Heerden described his unsuccessful job searching since as “soul-destroying”. Being rejected was hard, but getting no response was worse.

“The market is so flooded. There are thousands of people looking for work. Instead of maybe 10 good operation managers to choose from, they’ve now got 1000 to choose from.”

Van Heerden said the building industry was also in a downturn. “Everybody’s closing doors, or scaling down.”

He said the family missed South Africa, but had no intention of returning.

“We’re here for the long haul. I mean, there’s nothing to go back to.”

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.