Chef payout ‘tipped balance’
A Christchurch cafe ordered to pay $13,000 after an employment dispute has gone into liquidation, saying it cannot afford it.
The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) awarded the sum to Cafe Allwood’s former head chef Keryn King for unjustified constructive dismissal.
Cafe Allwood director Mark Hutching said the ERA determination ‘‘tipped the balance’’ for the business.
‘‘The cafe wasn’t making money at the time, we started it two years ago and we knew it would take two or three years to get up and running. We were quite prepared to wait,’’ he said.
The Halswell cafe went into liquidation on April 4 – less than a month after the ERA determination of March 16.
The liquidator’s report, dated April 5, gave two reasons for insolvency: the company was unable to pay its debts as trade was never strong enough to make it profitable, and it could not afford to pay King’s settlement.
It owed $280,000 to unsecured creditors, the report said.
Hutching said the ERA ruling of March 16 was ‘‘devastating’’ for his business and he believed the ERA was prejudiced against employers.
Cafe Allwood closed over Easter weekend. A post to its Facebook page thanked its ‘‘wonderful loyal customers’’ and staff.
The post advised Allwood Trees, a nursery business which lists Mark and Helen Hutching as directors, was unaffected by the cafe’s closure.
In his determination, ERA authority member David Appleton found King was unjustifiably constructively dismissed (where an employee feels they have no choice but to resign) and was subject to an unjustified disadvantage in her employment.
She was awarded $4937.14 in lost wages, $394.97 in holiday pay and $8000 in compensation.
One part of a counterclaim against King by Cafe Allwood succeeded, and she was ordered to pay $58.73 for food she had taken. She said she had permission to take the food, something the company denied.
King claimed she was ‘‘set up’’ by her bosses, who took photographs of a kitchen dirty with undated and unlabelled food and blamed her for the mess.
Appleton said the state of the kitchen was not acceptable to King’s bosses, and said ‘‘[her] actions did contribute to the situation that led to the personal grievance’’.