The Employment Relations Authority has upheld a personal
grievance for unjustified dismissal against the management of a ship.
The employee dismissed had raised allegations in relation
to the other employees on the ship.
Those allegations of sexual misconduct were dealt with including an
apology from the other employee.
However, that employee then went on to become Master of the ship and the
employee who was dismissed alleged that the Master’s behaviour towards her
continued to be inappropriate and she sought to change shifts, so that she
would be under a different supervisor. That
change of shifts was denied by the company.
The company then moved to terminate her for incompatibility.
The ERA found that the relationship between the two
employees was not irreconcilable, but that the employer had failed to take
appropriate action recommended by an independent investigation. That had recommended management training for
the Master of the ship which had not been done.
The management training was actually given after the employee was
terminated and as a result of the training the employee did change their
behaviour and became more mellow in their dealings with employees. That showed that, had the proper training
been given at the time, there was no need to dismiss the employee.
The Employment Relations Authority ordered the employer to
pay three months wages plus $20,000 compensation for hurt and humiliation.
In this case the employer had investigated through an
independent person, but had failed to follow the recommendations of the
independent investigator. This left them
open to the claim that they had failed to take all reasonable steps to protect
the employee and all reasonable steps to deal with any alleged incompatibility
before they dismissed the employee.
Alan
Knowsley
Employment
Lawyer Wellington
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