Request to drip-feed $12k dismissal penalty denied

A sushi company that wrongly fired a kitchenhand has failed to squirm out of paying a lump sum penalty, its pleas of poverty at odds with its revenue.

Feilding business Raw Sushi Ltd, which trades as Sushi Raw, was ordered by the Employment Relations Authority in May to pay former kitchenhand Sarah Beaney $12,571.

The issues between the company and Beaney came up after she was asked to cancel her Christmas holiday in 2017 two days before she was due to go on leave.

She agreed but only if she could take a week off in February.

The owners, Hyun Ji Kim and Jin Ho Nam, asked her to cancel that holiday too but she refused.

She was ignored by the owners when she got back and they told other staff to do the same, making Beaney feel she was being punished.

She was then sacked.

The authority found she was wrongly fired, and ordered Raw Sushi to pay the $12,000.

Payments are usually made in one lump sum but the company applied to do it in instalments of $500 a month.

According to a decision published this month, the company provided bank statements to the authority to prove it did not have enough revenue to cover the lump sum.

Beaney opposed the application, saying Raw Sushi’s pleas of poverty were porkies.

Authority member Michael Loftus said Beaney could not use the owners’ circumstances in her arguments but the bank statements painted a revealing picture.

The company had limited cash reserves, reasonable income and significant outgoing payments.

But many outgoings involved purchases of personal items, and large payroll payments Beaney claimed were shareholder withdrawals or payments to the owners – an assertion the company did not deny.

Raw Sushi had the onus to prove it could not afford to pay but failed to convince Loftus. The company has until November 14 to pay up.