Bakery penalised for firing worker without a contract

A Wellington bakery that tried to fire a worker under the 90-day trial clause has to pay her $5000 because she had not signed her employment contract.

Kathleen Hodson began working for Li and Feng Ltd, trading as Tawa Village Bakery, in June 2017. Her employment lasted four weeks, when she was fired under the 90-day trial clause after she was sent home because of a power cut.

The power cut occurred half an hour into her shift and because there was little for staff to do, owner Muyuan Li told all four workers to go home about 10.45am. But he said if power was restored before 1pm, they were expected to return to work.

The power was restored within 10 minutes after staff had left. About 11.20am, Hodson noticed she had missed several calls from Li and a text message asking her to return to work.

Hodson replied saying she was unable to make it back to work.

Li offered to pay for her travel costs, but if she did not return to the bakery, she would be fired.

‘‘Bring your uniform back tomorrow, today is your last day thanks,’’ Li said in a text message.

Li said Hodson was fired under the 90-day trial period, but she had not signed her employment agreement.

She had signed a letter attached to the employment agreement that stated it was not an offer of employment but an ‘‘opportunity to consider a possible employment agreement’’.

The Employment Relations Authority said while there was no doubt that Li wanted to ensure the employment agreements were legally compliant, because English was a second language for them, it was likely that they misunderstood the content and effect of the letter.

Employers had a duty to get their paperwork right, the authority said.

But even though the bakery was not able to demonstrate the trial period was mutually agreed in writing, this did not invalidate the rest of the employment relationship, the authority said.

It found that even if Hodson had signed the employment agreement, her dismissal would still have been unjustified because it stated either party had to give one week’s notice in writing.

The authority said Hodson provided no reasonable explanation for why she did not return to work and the bakery also failed to look into why she could not make it back to work.

Employers had a duty to get their paperwork right, the authority said.