A construction boss with a history of transgressions as an employer and thousands of dollars owed to previous aggrieved workers is in hot water again.

John Gemmell, the sole director of Warrior NZ Limited, has been hauled before the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) following claims by former apprentice Nilesh Prasad that he was forced to resign.

Gemmell has previously been before the ERA for the way he sacked two other apprentices and collectively owes them $43,000, which he refuses to pay.

An unsupervised apprentice

According to the recent determination, Gemmell offered Prasad a job as a mechanic repairing his vehicles in early 2021.

When that work dried up, Gemmell suggested Prasad start working for his company as an apprentice builder.

Prasad liked Gemmell and enjoyed the work, he told the ERA.

Builder and construction company director John Gemmell has been ordered by the Employment Relations Authority to pay a former apprentice whom he unjustifiably constructively dismissed. Photo /John Gemmell

However, he began to take issue with his lack of supervision, stating he was sometimes left to work on his own and told to “get on with it”, even though he had no prior building experience.

Prasad told the ERA there were times Gemmell expected him to complete work that he did not know how to undertake, and he did not have anyone to ask.

He understood Gemmell was supposed to supervise him as an apprentice builder, but said Gemmell would often only be at the work site for a short while before leaving.

When he tried to refuse to do work he thought was unsafe, he claimed Gemmell told him to “just do it”.

Prasad said he eventually learned the job from others and figured out some tasks on his own. He felt more supported at the large sites because there was always someone to ask.

He claimed Gemmell told him to follow everyone else’s lead and, if anyone questioned his ability to carry out building work, Prasad was to “stall them” until Gemmell arrived.

Speaking to NZME, Gemmell said Prasad’s claims were a “load of rubbish”.

“I would never say that. I subcontracted to the bigger wheels, and they decided they would run our groups,” he said.

Gemmell, 67, said his operation once employed up to 50 staff, servicing Silver Fern Farms facilities among other construction projects around Hastings.

However, the business stopped operating four years ago, he said.

Injury not reported

According to the determination, Prasad also said he was injured at work as he stepped off a ladder.

He was unbalanced, missed a step and sprained his ankle as he fell into a piece of gib.

Prasad said the principal contractor asked him to report the incident.

But he claimed Gemmell discouraged him from reporting it and told him that if he did not come to work, he wouldn’t get paid.

Prasad said he returned to work the following day, but his ankle was so painful that he felt in danger of passing out and left.

He went to the doctor, who declared him medically unfit for work for 10 days.

Nilesh Prasad claimed he was not supervised in his role as an apprentice. Photo / 123RF

No ACC claim was made in relation to the injury, and Prasad said the company paid him his annual leave in advance to cover his time off, when he believed he should have been receiving ACC payments.

When he returned to work, he said Gemmell was “very negative” towards him.

Again, Gemmell disputed Prasad’s account, telling NZME that Prasad’s injury was not his responsibility.

“I think he is full of s***,” he said.

New agreement leads to resignation

Finally, Prasad told the ERA that Gemmell had bullied him.

He claimed Gemmell sent him aggressive text messages, which he interpreted as threatening, and used “abusive standover tactics”.

The final straw for Prasad came when Gemmell told him the company required him to sign a new employment agreement.

He claimed he was told the new agreement would give him an 11% increase in wages but remove his entitlements to sick pay and annual leave.

Prasad said he told Gemmell he wanted a copy of his original agreement, but Gemmell refused to provide one.

He became suspicious of the company’s motives when told he had until 4.30pm that day to sign. His response was to resign with two weeks’ notice.

Prasad said he worked out his two weeks’ notice but claimed he was paid for only one week.

The determination stated Prasad was later issued with an invoice by the company for failing to work out his notice.

He was also referred to a debt recovery agency by the company to recover the cost of his tools.

However, Prasad said he had paid for the tools months earlier.

In October 2021, a month after he resigned, Prasad raised a personal grievance with the company.

Three years later, in September 2024, he turned to the ERA to commence action relating to the personal grievance, claiming he had been constructively dismissed.

Gemmell disputed Prasad’s claims, emphasising that Prasad had resigned.

“I’m not a bully. I don’t believe I shortchanged him. I gave him a job when no one else would,” Gemmell told NZME.

But the authority found that Warrior NZ had breached its employment obligations and its duty of good faith to Prasad.

“Its actions were not the actions of a fair and reasonable employer and its conduct was repudiatory of the employment agreement. I find Mr Prasad was unjustifiably constructively dismissed,” the ERA ruled.

Warrior NZ was ordered to pay Prasad $15,000 compensation for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings.

It was also ordered to pay him $5278 for lost wages, $840 for holiday pay, and $515 for unlawful deduction, totalling $21,633.

‘I maintain they shouldn’t be paid’

It is not the first time the ERA has found Gemmell has breached his obligations as an employer and ordered him to pay former workers.

In 2022, he was ordered to pay $28,000 to an apprentice he fired via text message and $15,000 to another he also fired via text message.

Gemmell said he hasn’t paid the former employees, and has no plans to. He also said he would not pay Prasad.

He believed they were treated fairly and took advantage of him.

“I gave them the jobs on goodwill, and they haven’t shown me goodwill,” he told NZME.

“I treated them like family, they were paid and they enjoyed it.”

He believed the ERA was a pathway to “easy money”.

“I damn well looked after those guys, I treated them fairly, they don’t care.

“I maintain they shouldn’t be paid.”

According to ERA’s website, if a party failed to comply with a determination, or it was believed there is a strong likelihood they won’t comply, the other party can ask the authority for a compliance order, or a Certificate of Determination, which they can then file in the District Court for enforcement.

Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.