Restrictions OK
Jurisdiction Employment Relations Authority - Auckland
Reference No AA 307/05
Hearing date 4 Aug 2005
Determination date 15 August 2005
Member D King
Representation L Lipman ; S Wilson
Location Auckland
Parties Brambhatt v Fisher & Paykel Appliances Ltd
Summary UNJUSTIFIED DISMISSAL - Serious misconduct - Applicant caught taking photos of equipment belonging to respondent with mobile phone - Equipment was unique technology potentially valuable to competitors - Informed breach of company policy and if did it again would be dismissed - Co-worker reported repeat incident - Applicant dismissed following disciplinary meeting - Opportunity to obtain representation and identify any useful witnesses declined by applicant - Respondent entitled to form preliminary view prior to meeting - Where two conflicting versions of events existed respondent entitled to decide which version to believe - Respondent had reasonable grounds to believe serious misconduct had occurred - Previous incident and no reason why co-worker who reported second incident would lie - Dismissal justified - Production technician
Result Application dismissed ; Costs reserved
Cases Cited Lincoln v Anchor Products Ltd [1999] 2 ERNZ 232
Number of Pages 4
PDF File Link: aa 307_05.pdf [pdf 21 KB]