Employee ordered to pay $1,500

An employee claiming The Warehouse failed to provide a safe and healthy work environment has been ordered to pay $1500 to the employer.

Barbara Twentyman suffered a shoulder injury at work in 2012 and also claimed she had heart attack symptoms from concrete dust in the workplace. She sought medical assistance one month and two months after the respective complaints, and was subsequently off work for over a year.

The Warehouse set up weekly meetings to assist Twentyman back to work however she failed to attend them. The employee’s own GP gave evidence at the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) hearing that her health issues were no longer ongoing. The GP also said Twentyman was suffering from allergies, not a heart attack. The shoulder injury had been claimed to restrict her ability to lift products which was a key requirement of her position.

The Warehouse engaged an ACC approved private investigator who obtained photographic evidence showing Twentyman undertaking tasks she claimed she couldn’t do. At the hearing her defence was that the photos were not of her. Twentyman was also observed limping into an ACC meeting using a crutch, however she left the meeting without the limp or the need to use the crutch. The ERA concluded Twentyman provided misleading information to her doctors and The Warehouse, and that her conduct was deliberate, serious and “sustained over a long period of time”.

The Authority member further stated that Twentyman’s “obstructive and uncooperative conduct is a breach of the implied terms of her employment agreement and her duty to conduct herself in good faith”. Twentyman was ordered to pay the $1500 penalty which the Authority stated was to “punish and deter others from engaging in similar conduct”.

This is an excellent outcome for employers, and demonstrates the obligations of good faith applies to both parties in the employment relationship.