Dairy worker driven overseas by 90 day unfair dismissal

A dairy worker and his family are the latest victims of summary dismissal under the 90-day fire at will law to be highlighted in a video released by the CTU today.

The couple, who wish to remain anonymous because of any impact on extended family, lost their jobs on a dairy farm as a result of standing up for a migrant co-worker who was being routinely abused by their employer. The family has since decided to move to Australia to pursue their careers in the dairy industry.

The farm worker’s story can be seen at www.youtube.com/NZCTU A transcript of the wife’s account of their case is also attached.

CTU Secretary Peter Conway said: “Despite being told on several occasions how well they were doing in the weeks before their dismissal, this couple were left without the option of testing the fairness of their sacking because of the 90 day law and have not even been informed of the reasons by their former employer.”

“Challenging an employer’s abusive behaviour towards a fellow worker would be at the very least a highly contestable cause of dismissal for an employee in any other circumstance. What makes it fair simply because they are in the first 90 days?”

“Unions have never argued that employers can’t trial employees and dismiss them fairly if they are obviously not up to the job. But these weren’t untried, unreliable workers on the margins of the job market – they were mature, experienced and skilled workers in New Zealand’s core export industry. The 90 day fire at will law has caused two parents to lose jobs which they loved and were excelling at, and has uprooted the family and driven them out of the country.”

James Ritchie, Secretary of the Dairy Workers Union, said: “This is not the kind of employer behaviour we want or expect to see in the dairy industry and it exemplifies everything that is wrong with the 90 day law. Smaller employers should not be exempt from decent standards of behaviour towards their employees, but that is exactly what this law does. By removing the right of appeal against unfair dismissal it allows bad employers to get away with unacceptable abuse of their position and powers.”

ENDS

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