Billboard battle: Worker pops prosecco after employment win against MediaWorks

A billboard company has posted a video of an employee popping prosecco after it beat an embattled rival in an employment stoush.

MediaWorks lost to a rival billboard company in the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) on Thursday after it tried to get an injunction to stop a former employee, Dae Chun, working for its rival Go Media.

Go Media also changed its own billboards near MediaWorks’ headquarters in central Auckland to say ‘Seize the Dae’ and ‘Dae won’ to rub the win in on Friday.

MediaWorks’ loss comes as the company is set to face legal action from former Today FM staff.

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They were given just hours to internally appeal the closure of the talk radio station in March.

Their attempt to enforce a restraint of trade clause comes only a year after the company backed star breakfast host Tova O’Brien for three months in her own trade restraint battle with former employers.

At the time, MediaWorks’ head of talk radio Dallas Gurney – who resigned before the Today FM axing – said the company “backed Tova 100% throughout the process”.

O’Brien eventually lost that case and had to wait two months to start her job at the radio station.

Labour MP Helen White later introduced a bill which could limit the ability for businesses to impose “restraint of trade” clauses in employment contracts, inspired by the case.

MediaWorks brought the injunction to the ERA after Chun started work as Go Media’s Auckland sales manager.

Chun started working with Go Media on February 20 after ending his employment with MediaWorks on February 17.

But MediaWorks didn’t lodge its ERA application until March 22, two months after Chun resigned.

MediaWorks alleged Chun had breached his contract’s restraint clause around confidentiality, non-competition, non-solicitation and non-dealing.

The company said it should be awarded penalties and damages for his work.

It also applied for penalties to be imposed on Go Media, his new employer, alleging that company had aided Chun’s breach of his contract.

But the authority ruled MediaWorks had fallen short in providing evidence that it was in the public interest to enforce the injunction to stop Chun from starting work.

“Even if they had, the balance of convenience and overall justice weighed strongly in favour of maintaining the status quo, until the substantive claims can be determined,” the ERA said.

MediaWorks was ordered to pay Chun and Go Media $1125 each towards legal costs.

Correction: An earlier version of this article said Dallas Gurney was part of the staff axed when Today FM closed. Gurney resigned before the show was axed. (Amended 8.05pm on May 2, 2023).