Freight firm forced to pay compensation

A Christchurch freight company has to pay a former employee more than $15,000 in compensation and lost wages after she resigned when it failed to reduce her workload.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) ordered Mondiale Freight Services to pay Briony Carpenter $15,000 compensation and lost wages from March 11, 2010, to November 20, 2010.

The decision was delayed due to the February quake which badly damaged the ERA’S Christchurch office.

Carpenter, who started working formondiale in February 2008, said her workload increased in March 2009 to cover two people’s roles after the export operator went on parental leave. However, Mondiale’s South Island manager Mark Irwin said while Carpenter’s role changed, the extra work was absorbed by other staff as well.

Carpenter said she had worked between 55 and 62 hours per week, leading her to visit a doctor, who prescribed anti-depressants.

In its decision, ERA member Philip Cheyne said Carpenter worked the long hours she reported to meet Mondiale’s requirements of her.

‘‘The volume and pressure of work was a significant cause of the illness suffered by Ms Carpenter from about April 2009.’’

He said Carpenter had alerted Mondiale to her health problems, including stress, weight gain and exhaustion, from working long hours in emails to her employers, which showed she had taken ‘‘unequivocal steps to make her concerns or stresses or medical conditions known’’.

Irwin denied making any commitment that Carpenter would never be needed to work after-hours, and did not recall her being opposed to working additional hours from time to time.

Carpenter said Mondiale’s inadequate or non-existent response to her declining health left her no other option but to resign.

Mondiale argued a new employee was about to start and Carpenter had not disclosed a prior illness.

Cheyne found Carpenter had suffered harm as a result of Mondiale’s breach of its duty to provide her with a safe workplace.