Bullied teacher gets $98k
A bullied kindergarten teacher received a payout of almost $100,000 after the Employment Relations Authority found she had been unjustifiably dismissed, her lawyer says.
The authority ordered the teacher’s kindergarten, identified only as ‘‘K’’, to pay her $15,000 compensation for humiliation and loss of dignity and hurt feelings in addition to her legal fees and nearly 17 months of lost wages.
The authority found the the teacher, identified only as ‘‘Mrs T’’, had been bullied by her manager, who had a track record of bullying other workers.
Culturesafe NZ president Allan Halse, who represented Mrs T, said the total payout to her was about $98,000. Culturesafe NZ advocates for victims of workplace bullying.
Halse said the amount was three or four times more than the normal amount paid for workplace bullying cases.
Halse said the case could serve as a precedent in ‘‘opening the floodgates’’ to larger payouts for those bullied in the workplace.
‘‘Mrs T’’ was dismissed in October 2015, after working at the kindergarten for about four years.
Authority member Rachel Larmer ruled that this was an unjustified dismissal, finding that the kindergarten had ‘‘improperly pressured’’ her to resign.
After her unjustified dismissal, Mrs T sought to mitigate her loss of income by working as a reliever, and selling her family home to move to Katikati in the Bay of Plenty to find work.
The authority said Mrs T’s mitigating actions contributed to a higher payout figure.
The kindergarten’s lawyers have not responded to requests for comment.