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Employee calls cancer patient crazy …

An employee’s personal grievance claim for unjustified disadvantage has been rejected by the Employment Relations Authority.

The employee worked as a Customer Services Consultant for a company operating public ferry services. The employee was given a final written warning after a customer who suffers from cancer made a formal complaint about her behaviour.

The ERA held that the employer acted as a fair and reasonable employer would have in the circumstances by making the decision to issue the employee with a final written warning, which has made the employee vulnerable to dismissal.

The ERA said that the employer’s decision was reasonable as the employee had followed the customer from the ferry terminal without authorisation, and had harassed her by making loud offensive comments.

The ERA found that this behaviour constituted serious misconduct which justified the employer giving her a final written warning.