Affco must 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 (ERA) also ordered that Henry Waihape be reinstated to his position. Waihape was dismissed by Affco from its Napier tannery in September last year on four accounts of misconduct. 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 ERA upheld Waihape’s case for unjustifiable dismissal because he was not given a chance to justify his actions, and because other staff who left early were not penalised.