$70k after woman sacked by ex

A Wanaka woman has won more than $70,000 after she was dismissed from Wanaka Pharmacy and the Wanaka Sun newspaper when her marriage with the owner ended.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has awarded Nicola McKay $70,905 plus two weeks worth of fuel costs. She had sought $99,942. The question was whether McKay was an employee of the companies, as she claimed, or not, as Wanaka Sun and

Wanaka Pharmacy owner Aaron Heath told the ERA.

Heath, a pharmacist, said his relationship with McKay, who had been in real estate, began in early 2005. McKay and Heath were married in 2007, but there was no intention to create a formal legal employment relationship between her and the Wanaka Sun and Wanaka Pharmacy, he said. As she was not an employee, she could not claim she was legally dismissed or had an entitlement to holiday pay, Heath claimed.

From May 20 until September 20, 2005, Heath paid her a $2500 monthly allowance from his shareholding account and gave her the use of a Wanaka Pharmacy car for her real estate work.

From October 4 until the relationship ended in September 2018, McKay was paid a salary from the Wanaka Pharmacy. She was being paid $62,822 at the end.

McKay’s work at the pharmacy shop lasted for a short while until she began doing other work for the companies, including training horses on a stud farm. She continued to work for the Wanaka Sun.

McKay got ‘‘a salary of sorts’’ from the Wanaka Pharmacy, Heath said, but as she was not a shareholder or director of the companies, it was a way to draw money to pay for household expenses. McKay’s work was flexible and she did it of her own volition, he said.

There was no written employment agreement between McKay and the companies, and McKay did not undertake performance assessments.

Heath and McKay separated in late August 2018. When McKay went to work at Wanaka Pharmacy on September 17, she was told someone else had taken her role. She was given a lawyer’s letter that day to say she was no longer working with the Wanaka Sun and the pharmacy.

On November 28, she raised a personal grievance. The ERA said that McKay had a lot of freedom in her employment, but she was not a shareholder or owner, she was an employee. Her dismissal was unjustified because it was done on the basis that she was not an employee.

She was awarded $57,334.24 for holiday pay and $13,000 for compensation. She did not apply for annual leave, and although she went on trips, she said she worked and they were not holidays as such.