Company ruled to have failed in 'almost every aspect of its dismissal process', must pay worker five-figure sum
A worker fired via email after failing to complete an important work task was unjustifiably dismissed, according to an Employment Relations Authority ruling.
The case, which serves as an important reminder for employers that a spur-of-the-moment dismissal may not meet legal requirements, concerned a timber operations company employee. The company asserted that it provided the worker with several performance warnings throughout the course of his employment.
In November 2019, the worker’s employer instructed him to fit and torque the wheels of a trailer. The employer inspected the trailer the following day to discover that the worker had failed to do so. Considering this the “final straw”, the employer sent the worker a termination email that evening. The worker applied to the Employment Relations Authority, seeking a finding that his dismissal was unjustified.
The company submitted that, while there may have been a “lack of formality” in its dismissal process, the procedural deficiencies were minor and “did not result in [the worker] being treated unfairly”. It also asserted that the worker’s failure to torque the trailer wheels was serious misconduct which could have caused a major accident, injury, or death.
The Authority found that, while the company showed “an enormous amount of tolerance” with the worker, it failed in almost every aspect of its investigation and dismissal process. It noted that the company did not communicate with the worker about his failure to torque the wheels nor provide him with an opportunity to respond to his dismissal.
“It is not the case that an employer can simply assume an employee has failed to do something and this justifies dismissal without any enquiry or attempt to understand why the employee did what he did,” the Authority said.
Finding the procedural failings were “sufficiently significant”, the Authority concluded that the worker was unjustifiably dismissed. It ordered that the company pay the worker $13,500 in compensation and $7,170 in lost earnings.
