Balance is needed

Looking through employment decisions it can sometimes feel like the law is very pro-employees. This is often true, our laws definitely look after employees and expect high standards of employers.

It’s important not to lose sight though of the fact that being generous to employees doesn’t mean employees can get away with anything. A recent decision highlights that being a bad employee can be as costly as being a bad employer.

The initial decision of the Employment Court came out in January, and concerned an airline who had dismissed an air stewardess following a series of incidents with other staff and passengers. The allegations against her included shouting at other staff members, being rude to passengers, not performing tasks and even eating food meant for passengers. Things were so bad on one particular flight that the captain had to get involved. Disciplinary processes were commenced, and it seems that the employer did things right.

The employee, on the other hand, would not engage with management, claiming sickness and refusing to attend meetings.

Eventually the employer decided to dismiss her.

The employee took them to the Employment Relations Authority claiming unjustifiable dismissal, and then to the Employment Court but it was no use.

The employer behaved appropriately, she did not. The dismissal stood. What’s striking though is the recent costs decision.

The usual rule when you go to court is that the unsuccessful party has to pay the legal costs of the other party, within reason.

In this case, the employee was initially required to pay $8750 towards the employer’s costs, after the authority’s decision.

The problem for the employee is that she didn’t stop there, despite the authority being clear that there was no merit in her claim.

In part because of the way that the employee dealt with the litigation, the employer ended up incurring costs of more than $110,000.

Even after losing her claim in the Employment Court, it seems the employee just couldn’t take no for an answer, and even in making her costs submissions she kept raising issues against the employer. The court held that the employee should pay, in addition to the costs from the authority hearing, a further $80,000 to the employer, in respect of its legal costs. Employment matters don’t have to be costly if the parties behave appropriately.

Mary-Jane Thomas is a partner at Preston Russell Law. Email her at MaryJane.Thomas@prlaw.co.nz.