Employer liable for summary dismissal

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has upheld a personal grievance claim and found an employer liable for an instant dismissal.

The employer was angry with an employee for ignoring his instructions to return to his workstation and do his allocated work instead of showing a gas delivery man where to find the gas bottles. 

Upon the employee’s return to the office the employer told him he was to leave immediately.  He followed that up with texts that the employee was summarily dismissed for his behaviour.

The ERA found that there was no basis for the employer’s decision to dismiss.  No investigation had been carried out, no allegations were put to the employee, and he was not given an opportunity to respond before he was dismissed. 

The employer later claimed to have taken time to consider all the options and get advice from others before making the decision to dismiss.  He claimed to have recorded all these options and discussions in a spreadsheet which he had then deleted. 

The ERA had no problem finding their evidence to be unreliable as the employer had dismissed the employee immediately on his return to the office and the “spreadsheet” can only have been constructed after the dismissal.

The employer’s failure to follow a reasonable process resulted in awards of $14,040 for lost wages and $17,500 for hurt and humiliation.  The employer also claimed that the employee advanced on him aggressively after he was told to “get out immediately and go home”.  The ERA found that there was no evidence of such behaviour, but it could only have happened after the employee was fired so did not cause the dismissal.

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