Prankster sacked for urine joke

Photo: Phil Doyle

WEE JOKE: Shannon Berridge with a glass of apple juice.

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A self-confessed "prankster" has told how he tried to outsmart his boss but was sacked after pretending to drink a glass of his urine.

But the Employment Relations Authority has found Shannon Berridge, 26, was wrongfully dismissed from his job as a car groomer and ordered his former boss Kevin Hopkins to pay out $6481.36 in lost wages and compensation for humiliation.

Berridge – an Auckland university student – was given his marching orders after calling Hopkins' bluff when he had supposedly ordered his staff via memo to undergo drug tests.

Hopkins had actually told co-workers he never intended to go through with the demand.

Berridge got one up on his then boss, placing a cup of warm apple juice – which he claimed was urine – on his desk and then drank it.

"I went across the road, brought an apple juice and filled up a cup and put it in the microwave to warm it up to pee temperature," Berridge told Sunday News.

"I put this on his desk with a note saying, 'Really sorry, couldn't hold it any longer. I have been holding it all morning and she [the tester] is still not here. Sorry'.

"He didn't think it was real, but the minute he picked it up and saw it was warm, his face dropped and he just went off. He went off at me, telling me to get rid of it now.

"The plan from the start was to throw it in his face, but seeing how angry he was I thought that was going to be a bit far. So I sculled it back, drank it in front of him and his face dropped. He almost s**t a brick.

"I then said, 'It is just apple juice, you plonker'.

"I told him I knew there was no drug test, 'You tricked me, I tricked you back'."

Hopkins said he was appealing the decision, but refused to comment further.

Berridge's gag proved to be no laughing matter for Hopkins.

Soon after the car cleaner was told to leave the premises and not come back until he got a real drug test.

Despite a subsequent test, which Berridge paid for, showing no signs of illicit drugs in his system, he was told there was no longer any work available for him.

Berridge said he had no regrets over his actions. "He joked me, I joked back," he said.

"Do I regret it? Hell no, if I could go back I don't know if I could change it to make it better.

"He tried to trick me and I had him – he thought he was holding my p*ss in his hands. It was classic."

Berridge's work was terminated in November 2008, and he lodged proceedings with the ERA in March.

ERA member Robin Arthur ruled Berridge be paid $3411.36 in lost wages, $3000 for compensation and reimbursed the $70 fee for lodging employment court action.

Hopkins initially told the ERA Berridge was an independent contractor, and not an employee, and said he was able to terminate his services due to unsatisfactory conduct and performance.

He also said there were allegations Berridge had taken a customer's car for a joyride and had strained working relationships with co-workers.

But Arthur's September 16 ruling stated: "I find Mr Hopkins did not properly deal with those matters at the time or provide sufficiently compelling evidence about them to the authority so as to warrant a reduction of remedies."

Hopkins was ordered to pay the $6481.36 within 28 days of the judgement, but has since lodged an appeal.

- © Fairfax NZ News