Unfair Dismissal (Unjustified Dismissal) Case Summaries | ERA New Zealand

Cardinal Logistics Limited dismissed the Applicant after he refused a drug and alcohol test, but the ERA found Cardinal did not establish genuine and reasonable grounds for requiring that test. Cardinal let him keep driving for about two hours after the alleged safety complaint, failed to verify the allegation, and the dismissal and suspension were found unjustified.

Sasha Lee worked as personal assistant to the sole director of the JNJ Group, but her actual role extended across a range of group businesses. The ERA found she was employed by JNJ Management Limited, not National Holdings Limited, but that JNJ had unjustifiably disadvantaged her by removing key duties without consultation and unjustifiably dismissed her by redundancy. JNJ was ordered to pay $105,342.25 gross wage arrears, $34,373.75 gross annual holiday pay, $17,500 compensation, and 13 weeks' lost wages...

Shaoqiang Chen worked long hours as a cook at Beached As Takeaways and was paid cash at rates below the minimum wage. The ERA found Wen Hui Lin was personally the employer, Mr Chen was a permanent full-time employee, and his dismissal was unjustified. The Authority ordered wage and holiday arrears, four weeks' lost wages, $8,000 compensation, $1,000 costs, and $12,000 in penalties, with $1,000 of the penalties payable to Mr Chen...

Anna Murgatroyd was made redundant from Xero after a restructure of its education team. She argued the redundancy was predetermined, relying heavily on a Miro board that appeared to show her role as proposed to be disestablished months before the restructure was announced. The ERA rejected the sham or predetermination argument, but found Xero's process procedurally unfair because the selection panel included her manager, who had raised performance concerns, without giving Ms Murgatroyd those comments and an opportunity to respond. Xero was ordered to pay two weeks' lost remuneration, the filing fee and $16,000 compensation after a 20 percent contribution reduction...

Prasath Balachandariyar was made redundant after Civtec Limited scored him too low for roles in a new structure. The ERA accepted Civtec had a genuine business reason and ran a procedurally fair consultation process, but found the selection scoring was substantively unfair. Civtec had marked him down because of bronchial asthma, a temporary workplace wrist injury, a wrongly used Record of Conversation and sick leave. The dismissal was unjustified, the wrist injury support was an unjustified disadvantage, and $37,534 was ordered...

Deborah Eyles was employed by Bottlers Limited as a permanent part-time supervised contact visit supervisor. After she accidentally sent a negative text about a visiting parent to the visiting parent instead of a colleague, Bottlers stopped rostering her, investigated the incident, then sent a termination letter saying only that it was giving notice under the employment agreement. The ERA rejected the employer's later redundancy explanation, found unjustified dismissal and unjustified disadvantage, and ordered $20,000 compensation plus wage reimbursement...

Angus Jowitt was paid $20 cash in hand while the employer accepted the agreed rate was $27 per hour. After a fraught working relationship and an argument over coffee, Gokula Music Limited treated him as having resigned. The ERA found there was no clear resignation, the 21 November text ended the employment, and the dismissal was unjustified. Wage arrears, holiday pay, compensation, lost wages and penalties were ordered...

Mereana Kennedy resigned after raising safety concerns about repeated unwanted communications from a candidate she was required to deal with at work. The ERA found Remarkable People Limited failed to properly investigate and respond once its safety plan was not working. The resignation was a constructive dismissal, unjustified under s 103A, with $20,000 compensation and 5.5 weeks lost wages ordered...