A former employee of a Dunedin taxi firm who is owed nearly $14,000 in unpaid holiday wages says there are "no words" for the stress she endured at the now defunct company.
The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found that in the almost five years Stacey King worked for Grab A Cab Dunedin 2011 Ltd, the taxi company failed to pay her the holiday pay she was legally entitled to.
The company, which traded as Nab a Cab, was also found to have "failed to engage about the matter at all over a period of more than two years", including when the authority asked it to supply wage, holiday and leave records along with a copy of Ms King’s employment agreement within 20 days.
The company also failed to appear at a Zoom conference held on June 20, after which the authority made its decision.
Additionally, it had failed to engage with the process earlier, avoiding an initial case management conference with calls to company director Alan Smith going straight to voicemail, ERA member Helen Doyle said in her recently released decision.
Ms King, who started working at the taxi company in August 2015, first attempted to get her accumulated holiday pay when she left in January 2020.
Her approaches to the person who handled payroll at the firm got no response.
Approaches from a lawyer and the early resolution team from the Labour Inspectorate also failed to prise any word from the taxi company.
At the Zoom conference, Ms King provided Inland Revenue Department records and stated she never took leave during her employment.
She also said she never received a final pay-slip from the company and stated there had been ongoing issues with pay-slips during her employment.
The ERA agreed the amount of leave as stated on Ms King’s pay-slips was unreliable.
Ms King said she was unable to take leave when she worked for the company as there were no arrangements made to enable shifts to be covered.
Grab A Cab was ordered to pay Ms King $13,873.89 and reimburse her ERA filing fee of $71.56.
Yesterday, Ms King said there were no words for the stress, both financial and otherwise, that the company put her and other employees through.
The company had to be reminded to pay staff each week and there was no job security, Ms King said.
Abuse from customers was also detrimental to the staff’s mental health.
Even when employees were sick they had to work in an office that was cold and damp, despite having medical notes, Ms King said.
In response to requests for comment yesterday, Grab A Cab said it had ceased trading and was looking at its options regarding liquidation.
