Affco to pay out and reinstate worker
Meat processing company Affco has been ordered to pay a former worker more than $6000 as compensation for humiliation and unjustified dismissal.
The Employment Relations Authority also ordered that Henry Waihape be reinstated his position.
Waihape was dismissed by Affco from its Napier tannery in September last year on four accounts of misconduct, including incorrect processing of meat.
Affco’s Napier production supervisor, Darren Ward, fired Waihape on the grounds of swearing, leaving his workstation without authority, refusal to follow instruction and breaching duty of good faith and loyalty by instructing other staff to leave two hours early.
But the Employment Relations Authority upheld Waihape’s case for unjustifiable dismissal because he was not given a chance to justify his actions.
On August 13 Ward had directed his staff first perform fleshing and then move to samming. But Waihape told the workers to perform the work in the opposite order, as this was the typical process.
Once the job was completed Waihape asked his colleagues to pack up and leave two hours before Ward’s scheduled completion time.
Waihape said his supervisor approached him and asked ‘‘What the f… are you doing? Get back on the sammer’’. To which Waihape replied: ‘‘For f... sake Darren, what are you on about’’?
Waihape also claimed that swearing was common in the workplace. Witness statements showed that Ward had been known to swear directly at others. The authority said: ‘‘It is well established that an employer will fail to justify a dismissal where ... communications do not appear to be greatly out of character with others apparently condoned by management in the workplace’’.
Waihape’s case was also upheld by the authority because other staff who left early were not penalised.