[ad_1]
An Auckland supermarket worker received $ 24,557 for wrongful termination after her former boss changed her hours without consulting her.
The Labor Relations Authority awarded Meiying Fan $ 7,257 in reimbursement for lost wages and $ 11,000 as compensation for humiliation, as well as $ 6,300 to cover legal costs.
Fan started working at an Asian food supermarket owned by Victorxie NZ Trading Limited in July 2019.
On September 21 last year, he took a leave to urgently travel to China.
READ MORE:
* Employers who ordered Covid-19 wage cuts ‘have reason to be concerned’
* IT worker fired by company that offered to work fruit picking instead of $ 28,800
* Pay docked for gasoline outlets
* The company pays $ 25 thousand for unfair dismissal for secret recording
When Fan returned to New Zealand, Victorxie’s director and sole shareholder, Ling Xie, told him that the additional work would be part-time.
Supplied
A supermarket worker received $ 24,557 after her boss changed her part-time without consultation.
Xie claimed that the reduced hours were so that Fan could help her pregnant daughter-in-law with her newborn, starting in December.
Xie also questioned the suitability of the job for someone Fan’s age. Fan was 65 years old.
Fan said she reluctantly accepted the reduction in hours because she felt she was being given no other option.
However, she only agreed on the condition that she be promptly listed to return to work.
A week after accepting the reduced hours, Fan still hadn’t received any information about her new roster, so she decided to report to work at what used to be her usual start time.
A senior staff member, after speaking with Xie on the phone, told Fan to leave the store.
When Xie finally sent a message to Fan, Xie said that his decision about the halftime hours was “based on the best intention and trying to be responsible for both of them.”
But the message said nothing about the hours or days Fan would wait or could expect to work.
A week later, Xie removed Fan from a group of WeChat messages that he had set up for Victorxie staff.
On October 22, Fan’s attorney wrote to Victorxie raising a personal complaint of wrongful termination.
The letter said that Fan believed that his job had been fired because he had not been paid since September 30, was asked to leave the premises on October 12, and had not heard from Xie since then about his current working hours. .
The letter said that Fan felt she had been “so suddenly and rudely put aside” and had “gotten rid of her” because of her age.
Xie did not reply to the lawyer, but sent a long WeChat message directly to Fan.
In the message, Xie reiterated his reasons for reducing Fan’s hours.
Authority member Robin Arthur found it reasonable for Fan to view the lack of communication about future work hours as a message that his job had ended.
Arthur said that while there were unwarranted procedural flaws in Fan’s firing, there were also flaws in the substantive reasons Xie gave for his actions.
“The decision [to reduce Fan’s hours], was reported on October 7, and the silence about their expected hours after Fan was told to leave the store on October 12, was an effective break from work and salary negotiation. What was done and how it was done was not justified, ”said Arthur.
In a later decision, Arthur ordered Victorxie to pay Fan $ 6,300 to cover his legal costs.
