RSA employee wins $27k over dismissal

• Author: Zizi Sparks
• Published date: 07 October 2021
• Publication title: Taupo Weekender

Now the Employment Relations Authority has ruled McLeod was unjustifiably dismissed and unjustifiably disadvantaged at work and ordered her former employer, Tokaanu-Turangi and Districts Memorial RSA Incorporated, to pay her $27,639.65.

Details of the case were outlined in an authority decision released to NZME.

McLeod was employed by the RSA as a club manager from June 2016 until her dismissal in October 2019.

She managed the bar, gaming area and staff. She provided monthly reports to the executive committee, the decision said.

At a committee meeting on September 19, 2019, she raised a personal grievance in writing for unjustified action causing disadvantage.

McLeod claimed an executive member of the club had performed unjustified conduct towards her and other members. She characterised it as “racial discrimination, indirect bullying, weight and sexual discrimination and the stress of possibly losing my employment”.

She asked the club to investigate and respond within 10 days.

At a committee meeting three days later, which included the member the complaint was about, the committee agreed to appoint a mediator to work towards a resolution between McLeod and the executive member.

On September 27, McLeod was invited to mediation by club president Ken Jellyman, who said the executive member had been warned that future similar behaviour would result in referral to the club’s disciplinary committee.

However, before the mediation could happen, McLeod was dismissed.

On October 2, a Taupō business, which had been reviewing the club’s financial processes, provided a written proposal for a new structure.

That day, Jellyman told McLeod that her role was to be reviewed and gave her two options — accept a bar staff role on reduced hours or take three month’s severance pay. McLeod was dismissed.

That afternoon new signatories were loaded on the club’s bank accounts in McLeod’s place and she emailed Jellyman, copying in John Grattan, the club’s vice-president, asking to confirm the terms of her termination before processing her final pay.

“I do not want to action the three months’ pay and then be accused of unauthorized (sic) action,” she wrote.

The next morning McLeod calculated and processed her final pay — $8000 immediately and $12,000 on a future processing date — without hearing from Jellyman. This was co-authorised by Grattan.

In an 11am meeting on the same day, Jellyman gave McLeod a letter setting out how her employment would end, including a sentence saying the...