Media release: Keast v Playground Centre

3 hours ago
3 min read

The New Zealand Employment Relations Authority has made a determination on The Estate of Samuel Keast v Playground Centre Ltd, in a grievance that was filed in February 2025 by Samuel’s sister, Serena, who has lived in Melbourne since 2007. In July 2025 I went on the record as a lay employment advocate for the Estate and was then instructed by their father Harley, who is the Estate’s administrator.

THE ESTATE OF SAMUEL KEAST v PLAYGROUND CENTRE LIMITED | Employment Relations Authority

Samuel tragically passed away in his workplace in Truganina, Melbourne, on 29 November 2023. His employer had transferred him to Melbourne nearly three months earlier after around seven years in Whanganui, 200km north of Wellington (pop. 50,000).

Months later, Serena learned that WorkSafe VIC had not been notified, and made a notification herself. Serena had also been given possession of Samuel’s two smartphones. One was a work-issued phone, and Playground Centre Ltd asked for it to be sent back. She nearly returned it, but thought better of it and decided to have an expert attempt to access the password-protected phone (and was one attempt away from “bricking” it, but successfully gained access).

Media activity

What followed were three media reports, which are paywalled, but their titles remain a fair reflection of what happened.

Playground Centre suicide: Tradie’s final phone call before being found dead in Melbourne factory | news.com.au Daniel Peters, 24 September 2024

Family of Kiwi tradie Samuel Keast fight for answers after suspected suicide overseas uncovers ‘toxic’ workplace - NZ Herald Benjamin Plummer, 4 October 2024

Sam Keast died at an Exclusive Brethren-linked workplace, Playground Centre. His sister, Serena, wants answers Michael Bachelard, 26 January 2025

Part of my job in 2025 was to argue that Samuel remained an employee of Playground Centre Ltd at the time of his death, and his employer’s known treatment of him created a cause of action that vested in the Estate, and the claim should progress. Authority Member Claire English disagreed, finding that Samuel’s employment transferred from Playground Centre Ltd to Playground Centre Australia Pty Ltd (PCA) around 1.5 months before his death, therefore the Authority does not have jurisdiction.

File to move to Australia

The Keast family sees this determination not as a loss, but an important answer to the preliminary question of which entity was Samuel’s employer at the relevant time, given that the evidence around this issue was quite ambiguous. Regarding other answers the family sought – those have been trickling in for a year or so, mostly through submissions to the Authority. The Authority’s determination is unlikely to bring comfort to Simon Filleul, who is a director and shareholder of both companies.

The Keast family is happy with the result so far, because this has been the most cost-effective way of preventing the two companies from exploiting a jurisdictional gap, whereby each company could simply deny being the employer and evade accountability. The Victorian coroner is yet to release its findings, but at least the Authority’s finding that PCA was the employer should carry considerable weight if a claim is brought against it in an Australian jurisdiction, such as the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Notwithstanding a pay increase (from NZD28.00 to AUD28.00) and unspecified “support” that was mentioned in the Authority’s determination, the amount of unpaid overtime Samuel worked pulled his effective hourly rate below the Australian minimum wage. Phone records indicated that Samuel had looked at several job vacancies in late November 2023, including an entry-level position at McDonalds.

For whatever reason, no ex-gratia payment was offered to the Estate by either company, and I was not invited to attempt to settle the matter on the Estate’s behalf in Wellington. Either gesture could have eased the companies’ legal burden in Australia.

Updates on the matter will be provided where appropriate.

Tristam Price – Editor and occasional advocate