Mushroom Harvester Unfairly Dismissed

A mushroom harvester who was accused of stealing a colleague’s mobile phone, wallet and money cards has won a case of unfair dismissal after his bosses failed to investigate the allegations properly.

Sothy ‘David’ Lim had worked for Christchurch-based Meadow Mushrooms Ltd for 20 years when the incident happened in August last year.

The victim’s husband was able to track the phone using find-my-phone software. Two of Meadow’s managers drove to the address to see if they could find the phone. The address was a Lodge where Mr Lim, the mushroom harvester, lived.

Employment Relations Authority member, Christine Hickey, said the managers were entitled to ask to see Mr Lim. However, Ms Hickey considers their telling the security guard at the Lodge that they were trying to find a missing phone coupled with asking to see Mr Lim was a breach of the employer’s duty of good faith to maintain trust and confidence between them and Mr Lim.

The inevitable conclusion to be drawn by the security guard was that Mr Lim was suspected of having unlawfully taken the phone. Ms Hickey said there was no need to involve the security guard in the discussion which was about the employment relationship between Mr Lim and Meadow only.

Later the security guard searched Mr Lim’s room, bag and person. Although Meadow’s managers stayed outside the room Ms Hickey said they were complicit in the search and this was again a breach of Meadow’s duty of good faith to Mr Lim.

At the resulting serious misconduct investigation meeting Mr Lim said that the area the phone was in was open to all employees and other contractors. He said a former driver for Meadow also lived at the Lodge.

Ms Hickey determined the investigation to be inadequate and completed in haste. No-one from Meadow saw the data on the phone tracking reported by the victim’s husband nor did they interview the husband to verify his information. Meadow simply relied on an indirect report of what the husband had said.

The haste and the lack of investigation lead to a suspicion that Meadow considered that it had sufficient proof that Mr Lim took the phone even before it held its meeting to hear his explanation.

The ERA ruled Mr Lim was unjustifiably dismissed. Mr Lim sought compensation for hurt and humiliation of $30,000. The Authority awarded $3,000 compensation plus lost wages of $4,839.