One Thursday Ms B. gave one week’s notice from her position as a telemarketer. The next day she rang in needing the day off to look after a sick child. This was the third occasion in two months that Ms B. had needed time off for family reasons.
At the time of the call her employer was preparing the wages. He knew that Ms B. had resigned the day before and upon learning that she was taking the day off his first thought was that she probably would not be coming back at all. This did not worry him as in the employment agreement allowed the employee to give one week’s notice and the employer was then entitled to pay the employee in lieu of notice and require the employee not to work out the notice period.
He chose to pay out Ms B.’s holiday pay along with her wages for the fortnight that had just past. He did not discuss any of this with Ms B.
On Monday when she went back to work Ms B. was told by the employer that it was up to her whether she stayed on or left. He did not mention the clause in the employment which entitled him pay her out. He did not tell her that if she left she would receive a week’s pay in lieu.
Ms B. felt pressured to leave but did not want to as she was not due to start her new job until the following week and did not want to lose a week’s pay. She asked for time to consider the proposal and went back to work.
While she was still considering the proposal the employer came and asked her for a medical certificate for Friday’s absence (she knew she was not obliged to provide a medical certificate for leave of less than three days) and started removing the partitions from around her desk. Feeling uncomfortable Ms B. gathered her belongings and told the employer she had decided to leave. The icing on the cake was when he then asked her what was in her handbag and said that he was checking whether she had been taking company property.
The Authority was satisfied that there was a disadvantage to Ms B. and that the conduct of the employer made the work place uncomfortable for her and this conduct by the employer was unjustified. The Authority ordered the employer to pay Ms B. $500.00. It is also noteworthy that both Ms B. and the company were represented and the issue of costs needed to be resolved between them. Goodness knows how much it cost the employer by the time he paid his legal costs and contributed to Ms B’s.
All the employer needed to say on the Monday was – “ Hi Ms B – you have given your notice – we are happy to pay you a weeks wages and you can leave now if you like” Ms B would have said “ cool – thanks I’m off”
Simple, really.
