The Employment Relations Authority has upheld a personal
grievance claim for unjustified dismissal after an employee was dismissed by
text without any proper process.
The employee had been taken on by her cousin to act as an
Administrative Assistant and was living in accommodation provided by the
employer. She was entitled to seek
reimbursement of business expenses but did not put in a reconciliation or claim
for expenses for many months. When the
claim was put in, it included items which she was not entitled to claim
for. The employer considered this to be
fraudulent and fired her cousin by text saying “there is no point in coming
back to work and if I were you I would find somewhere else to live
immediately”.
The employee took this as a dismissal and therefore did
not attend the disciplinary meeting which the employer then organised after the
text. The ERA had no difficulty finding
that the text was a dismissal and could not be read any other way. This meant that no proper process had once
again been followed before the dismissal was made and the ERA awarded $15,000
compensation, $14,500 lost wages and a $3,000 bonus and $1,679 in unpaid
expenses.
The company has indicated that it intends to appeal the
decision and also to file a claim for unpaid rent against the employee.
The two main lessons from this case are firstly, to make
sure you follow a proper disciplinary process before you dismiss and secondly,
to take care when hiring family members as often arrangements are done in a
less formal way which can come back to bite the employer when family members
fall out.
Alan
Knowsley
Employment
Lawyer Wellington
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