An
employee’s personal grievance claim for unjustified constructive dismissal has
been upheld by the Employment Relations Authority after the ERA found that the
employee had been racially abused in the workplace.
The
employee resigned as a result of her co-workers taunting her with racial
comments, calling her names and yelling and swearing at her in the workplace.
The
employee reported most of the incidents to her superiors, however they failed
to take her complaints seriously.
The
ERA held that the employer failed in its duty to provide a healthy workplace
for the employee and noted that there is a fine line between acceptable banter
and unacceptable work behaviour. The ERA held that name calling and racist
comments were clearly intolerable in the workplace.
The
ERA ordered the employer to pay the employee over $9,000 for lost wages plus
$12,000 in compensation for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to
feelings.
Alan Knowsley
Employment Lawyer Wellington
No comments:
Post a Comment