An unvaccinated employee who claimed his boss told him he was brainwashed and read too much bulls*** on the internet has been awarded $24,774 after being unjustifiably dismissed.

Paul Laursen had been engaged by Coldrite Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Hastings, as an installer since October 2016 but ran into problems when the Covid-19 pandemic became an issue in New Zealand in early 2020.

After the work available for unvaccinated staff became scarce in early 2022, Laursen was called into a meeting on January 12 to discuss the situation, but things got heated and he was ultimately given two weeks’ notice of redundancy.

Laursen made a complaint to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) alleging he was unjustifiably dismissed and had not been made redundant.

In a determination last week the ERA awarded Laursen $14,7740 for lost wages and holiday pay and a further $10,000 for humiliation, loss of dignity, and injury to his feelings.

While Laursen could not be contacted for comment, Coldrite managing director Jim Bullock told NZME the company would be appealing the decision which he described as “disgusting”.

“What is going on out there is appalling,” Bullock said. “We have got to appeal it.”

Bullock said businesses were being crucified by authority decisions and something needed to be done.

 “All of this needs to be brought out into the open.”

Coldrite did most of the air conditioning work for the Ministry of Education in Hawke’s Bay with the bulk of the work done during the school holidays from December to January, the ERA determination stated.

Under the Public Health Response Act an order was introduced, from November 16, 2021, requiring people working on school sites to have had their first dose of the Covid vaccine, and, from January 1, 2022, only workers who were fully vaccinated were permitted in schools.

Various other firms which contracted Coldrite advised only vaccinated workers could perform the subcontracting work they required while private clients also requested vaccinated workers.

While the company believed non-vaccination was a valid personal choice, the situation began creating issues with the allocation of work with an increasing inability to send unvaccinated workers to various jobs.

Coldrite sent notices from clients to its staff via an internal email system, to keep them informed of the situation, however Laursen said he was not receiving those, authority member Michael Loftus said.

Numerous discussions occurred between management and staff about the growing issues with job allocation, including advice to non-vaccinated workers that it was becoming increasingly difficult to assign work to them. These ultimately resulted in all but two workers, one of which was Laursen, being vaccinated.

While Laursen claimed he had no knowledge of attempts to advise him of the situation, Loftus accepted the company’s evidence as it had been sent to Laursen’s private email and the issue had been raised at staff meetings he attended.

The ERA has awarded an air conditioner installer $24,774 after he was allegedly sacked for not being vaccinated against Covid.

The situation came to a head on January 10, 2022, when installation manager Stephen Ward said the only work available was at schools and he had to send vaccinated staff to those jobs.

Ward conceded there were other minor tasks but not enough to occupy Laursen fulltime, so he approached Bullock and an email was sent arranging a meeting between the three.

While Laursen claimed he never received the email the meeting went ahead.

It quickly became ill-tempered and Laursen alleges Bullock commented that he (Laursen) and the other unvaccinated employee were the only two in the company and “they were brainwashed and read too much bulls*** on the internet”.

Laursen also claimed Bullock blamed him for the other employee not getting vaccinated and told him other staff were upset he refused to have the vaccine while they chose to comply.

Bullock’s evidence, supported by Ward, was that he explained there were difficulties finding ongoing work for Laursen because he was unvaccinated and there was a brief discussion about what else he could do.

“My only reference to the internet was telling him not to read too much into what he sees on the internet”.

Bullock said he did not give notice of termination during the meeting but accepted Laursen clearly thought he had been sacked as he reiterated the view before making some obscenities and leaving.

As Laursen left Bullock claimed he said: “You are not sacked, sit down and talk about this”, but it didn’t happen.

A letter was later sent confirming Laursen was being made redundant with two weeks’ notice, on January 26.

Loftus noted while there was no legal definition of redundancy, it was accepted it required two essential elements, firstly the employer had a position that was potentially surplus to requirements and secondly it followed that the surplus resulted in the termination of specific individuals’ employment.

He said the first element didn’t exist.

“That is because Mr Bullock openly accepted, when questioned, that Coldrite had work available and there was no need to shed staff or otherwise downsize.”

Loftus said after Laursen left the meeting in anger the company should have allowed a cooling-off period, made it clear dismissal had not yet happened, and given him an opportunity to complete the consultation process.

“It didn’t and, for that reason, I must conclude Mr Laursen’s dismissal was not only substantively unjustified but also procedurally so.”

-Leighton Keith, Open Justice