A sexy tradie who last week won an almost $23,000 payout for being unfairly dismissed after being accused of flirting with a female customer has told a radio station he now believes there’s more to the story.
Sam Newman was given his marching orders over the allegation but the Auckland man said he believes his former boss made up the story of a jealous husband to cover a complaint about poor workmanship.
The topless roofing technician was accused of flirting with the man’s wife after she invited him into her house and offered him a drink and a ham and cheese croissant.
Roofing technician Sam Newman (pictured) has revealed the real reason he believes he was sacked from his job
Mr Newman (pictured) was fired from his job after being accused of flirting with a client’s wife
But Mr Newman (pictured left and right) has claimed the flirting allegation was made up
Mr Newman, who was an assistant roofing technician at Solid Roofing, said he and his supervisor were only shirtless at the time because it was getting hot while they were working.
He also claimed he rejected the woman’s advances, only accepting a glass of water.
The 22-year-old told KIIS FM he later told his boss, who was not at the work site at the time, ‘about this lady and how she offered me to come inside’.
‘And then about a month later the job actually went bad and she complained about the quality of the work because the boss actually gave me the wrong colour paint to spray. And he tried twisting it and blaming me by making up this flirting allegation,’ Mr Newman claimed when speaking to the radio station.
Solid Roofing director Peter Vandenberg had previously told him the woman’s husband had complained that Mr Newman had ‘flirted with his wife’.
Mr Vandenberg also said the customer complained about the quality of work done at the Cockle Bay house, citing the ‘unevenness of the paint on the roof’ and that the roof was ‘too thin’, Stuff reported.
An investigation into Mr Newman’s dismissal was launched and the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found he was wrongfully dismissed
The ERA compensated Mr Newman (pictured left and right) with $22,875 for ‘injury to feelings and unjustified dismissal’
Mr Newman told the radio station he had not heard from the woman’s husband until the man rang him to find out what had happened.
‘He told me that he never actually complained about me flirting, and so my boss had actually completely made this up about me flirting with the wife,’ Mr Newman claimed.
Mr Vandenberg gave Mr Newman a written warning for ‘serious misconduct’. Mr Newman was later fired by phone.
The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) investigated the incident and found that the written warning and dismissal were unjustified.
Authority member Anna Fitzgibbon said the husband was merely annoyed by the attention his wife gave to Mr Newman.
‘Vandenberg said he had received a “serious complaint” from the customer’s wife about Mr Newman’s flirtatious behaviour. He had not. Rather, the customer’s husband was annoyed by the attention his wife was paying to Mr Newman and Mr Cameron working with their shirts off,’ Ms Fitzgibbon said.
The ERA compensated Mr Newman with $22,875 for ‘injury to feelings and unjustified dismissal’.
Mr Newman (pictured) was accused of flirting with the woman after she invited him into her house and offered him a drink and a ham and cheese croissant