Former Meatworker Goes To Court After Employer Secretly Tracked Work Car
July 27, 2015 | Business Crime
A former meatworker who had his work car secretly tracked on the path to dismissal has taken his case to the Employment Court.
Former Randwick Meats employee Dale Burns won an Employment Relations Authority decision issued on July 1 to have his claim for unjustified dismissal heard along with two existing personal grievance claims in the Employment Court.
The butcher-turned-sales representative worked at the meatpackers for more than 20 years without a written employment agreement before serious allegations of misconduct led to a final warning in June 2014, followed by his suspension, and ending with his dismissal in December.
Tensions escalated toward the end of 2013, after his employers alleged Burns had been skiving off from work rather than seeing customers, based on data from a GPS tracker they secretly put in his car.
"[Employer Raymond Fleetwood] noted the time that Mr Burns went home on both days during the busiest time of the year when Mr Burns could have been helping," Authority member Paul Stapp wrote.
"I accept that they had no reason to put a system into the other two salesperson's vehicles, one of whom used his own car.
"Randwick [Meat] may well be open to criticism for acting secretively, but in the context of running its own business and on the basis of the information it had received about Mr Burns' hours and the agreement they say they all reached, any breach of good faith was not fatal in the context of the issues."
They issued him with a final warning notice in June 2014, sparking a personal grievance claim based on other factors than the GPS from Burns who believed the notice was unjustified.
He wanted $10,000 compensation for hurt and humiliation suffered.
The company continued investigating allegations of poor performance, including that he may have been collecting sensitive information outside his normal role.
Burns turned down an offer of paid special leave to cover him while the company continued investigating his employment; the company decided to suspend him in November.
Authority member Paul Stapp dismissed a claim from Burns that his suspension was unjustified; a decision Burns' has also subsequently challenged in the Employment Court.
He was sacked in December, and subsequently brought his third claim to the Employment Court.
- Article originally on stuff.co.nz.
