Pro Drivers advocate Peter Gallagher. Photo supplied
NZPost has fired two employees who asked their taxpayer-owned corporate employer why they were being underpaid and why couriers were operating on their route.
Te Awamutu rural delivery contractors Danny and Ian Kennedy were fired last Friday after their bid for an injunction to prevent their dismissal failed in the High Court.
Justice Ian Gault said while there were serious questions to be answered, and the Kennedys had an arguable case against NZPost, the time it had taken to get to court from the date of NZPost’s termination notice was too long.
Also, because the working relationship between the Kennedys and NZPost was untenable – according to lawyers from both sides – Justice Gault said there was a question whether NZPost’s decision to terminate was lawfully exercised.
“Three Hills Group [the company owned by the Kennedys] has an arguable case, but the balance of convenience factors weighs against interim relief … and I conclude that an interim injunction should not be granted …”
The reserved decision was released on Thursday and NZPost sacked the Kennedys the following day, leaving the futures of their three staff uncertain.
Pro Drivers advocate Peter Gallagher said Danny and Ian would weigh their options in the coming days, including how to honour the loyalty of their rural customers and seeking legal advice on the path to trial to hold NZPost accountable.
He said a number of the couple’s former customers were saying NZPost deliberately ruined the Kennedys business and betrayed the community’s trust in their rural delivery contractor.
“The Kennedys are the innocent victims of a behind-the-scenes marketing strategy, which was entirely for the benefit of NZPost, and its culmination was in the dismembering of urban fringe routes and rural routes generally.
“NZPost’s de facto national ‘courierisation’ strategy, which is to be introduced early next year incorporating what appears to be its minimum wage-based MRB model, and its planned reduction of the rural delivery service to three days per week, should now be recognised by the rural community for exactly what was forecast by Pro Drivers Advocates in December 2022,” Peter said.
He said the rural delivery service had worked well for many decades, with deep bonds of trust and loyalty formed between RD contractors and their rural communities.
Additionally, there was between $100-150 million dollars of investment from ordinary Kiwis into what NZPost promoted as a good business opportunity.
“There is no need to fix what clearly isn’t broken,” Peter said.
“Nor should contractors be faced, as they currently are now, with the potential likelihood of untenable cutting of hours and under-renumeration, if not outright termination of their businesses because of corporate greed.”
Pro Drivers Advocates is working with Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger on a political strategy moving forward to help remaining rural delivery contractors.
