Restrictions OK
Jurisdiction Employment Relations Authority - Christchurch
Reference No CA 20/06
Hearing date 23 Nov 2005
Determination date 14 February 2006
Member J Crichton
Representation S Fairclough ; S Turner
Location Christchurch
Parties Barnes v Telecom New Zealand Ltd
Summary UNJUSTIFIED DISMISSAL - Whether person intending to work - Applicant alleged she was unjustifiably dismissed when respondent withdrew unconditional offer of employment - Respondent alleged employment was conditional on second satisfactory reference check and there was never a concluded employment relationship - Respondent used recruitment agency - Conflict of evidence over how recruitment agent (B") explained respondent's recruitment process to applicant - Risky strategy for complicated recruitment patterns to be managed exclusively with verbal communication - Applicant would have been excited when process first explained and may simply have misheard what she was told - Having misheard process the first time, it was easier for applicant to confuse the process when there were further discussions about it - Difficult to see how experienced professional person such as B could have got process so wrong as to make mistake in conveying information to applicant - More likely that applicant simply did not hear that there were two points at which reference checking came into question - Employment relationship never created"
Result Application dismissed ; Costs reserved
Number of Pages 7
PDF File Link: ca 20_06.pdf [pdf 39 KB]