The former head chef-restaurant manager of the Ladybird Hill vineyard restaurant in Omarama has won $4500 compensation after the Employment Relations Authority found she was unjustifiably dismissed in February last year.
Adrienne Molloy's action against R.J. and D.E. Smaill Partnership (trading as Ladybird Hill Restaurant) was heard in March.
The authority supported her claim and also found she was unjustifiably disadvantaged by not having an employment agreement and by her duties being unilaterally changed. Ms Molloy was employed as head chef and restaurant manager in August 2011.
Both parties anticipated Ms Molloy would take her annual leave and some unpaid leave last winter to visit family in England, and then return and resume working when the restaurant reopened for the 2012-13 season.
While aware the Smaills were trialling the operation, Ms Molloy understood she had employment for at least 18 months, or at least two summers.
But matters came to a head on January 2, 2012, during a particularly busy lunchtime, when Ms Molloy lost her temper and swore.
Later, Ms Molloy and the Smaills discussed her outburst and, while accounts differed, Ms Molloy understood she had been told to leave.
After an exchange of emails, including a suggestion of mediation by Ms Molloy, she returned to work on January 5, 2012, but was told some of her duties had been removed, including managing staff. On February 5 last year she was advised the restaurant could not keep trading because of a downturn. It closed the same day.
Ms Molloy claimed lost wages from the date of closure up to April 4 last year, but that was dismissed by the authority, which said ''the redundancy was inevitable''.
The $4500 was awarded for ''humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings she suffered as a result of her unjustified disadvantages and dismissal''.
