Embattled commercial cleaning company Cookright Filtering Service faces a third criminal conviction in the space of a month. Co-director Glenn Smith is soon to appear in the Manukau District Court for a pre-trial hearing on fourteen charges brought by the Ministry of Primary Industries under the Animal Products and Crimes Acts.
Stuff and Radio New Zealand reported on the matter, after a name suppression order lapsed, in mid-2023.
And in the last few weeks two Nelson-based employees were convicted of threatening behaviour and common assault. They received a six month suspended sentence and were ordered to pay $500 emotional harm reparation, respectively. At the time the young woman who was assaulted in April was an employee of Kaye Thomas trading as A1 Vat Services, a competitor of Cookright.
In December 2023 Cookright had managed to obtain a restraint of trade injunction against its former employee Keith Hill, by then working for Thomas which lapsed in mid-2024. The assault victim had been brought in by Thomas for cover during the period Hill was injuncted.
In May, the Employment Relations Authority heard the substantive part of restraint of trade dispute. Hill had treated the noncompete clause as unenforceable due to the poor rate of pay - just $1-2 per hour above minimum wage during his last year at Cookright. Despite this, and the criminal charges having been laid against its employees a month earlier, Cookright managed to obtain orders for Hill to pay nearly $15,000 in damages and an $8,000 penalty. Thomas was also ordered to pay a $6,000 penalty for aiding and abetting Hill’s breach by employing him to do similar work.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Cookright has not received a cent. Hill and Thomas have challenged (appealed) the awards to the Employment Court and brought a counterclaim against Cookright for its employees’ threatening and obstructive conduct that prejudiced the proceedings.
In the meantime, Cookright has lost customers in the Nelson area because its freshly convicted employees are no longer able to obtain Ministry of Justice clearance for sites that require it.
The thing about lawlessness is, it’s just bad for business.
Tristam Price, Editor
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