$24,000 payment to employee resulting from failure to follow a basic commonsense employment process

A recent case again shows the financial and other costs of not following the correct process when dealing with employees. A manager was appointed on what the employer intended to be a casual basis but the casual nature was not spelled out to him.

The manager believed he was a permanent full time employee so when he was dismissed and treated as a casual in that process he took a claim for wrongful dismissal, seeking lost wages, compensation and a penalty.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and Employment Court have held that he was permanent and full time, and entitled to $14,000 loss of wages plus $10,000 compensation.

The employer would also be liable for their costs in the ERA and Court and a $1,000 penalty was imposed on them as well.

This could have been avoided by following a simple commonsense process when hiring the employee so that no misunderstanding arose. In addition it is a legal requirement that all employment contracts are provided in writing. For our free checklist on hiring callAlan Knowsley. You can also obtain our free Employer’s Guides to Handling Disciplinary and Performance Issues and many other matters from our website