Whistleblower awarded $10,000 over dismissal
Last updated 14:36, January 6 2015
A painter has been awarded $10,000 because she was wrongly dismissed days after blowing the whistle on her employer's failure to pay tax.
The Employment Relation Authority (ERA) ordered compensation for Karla Botting, of Strowan in Christchurch, for the humiliation and loss of dignity she suffered when she was fired from her job as a paint hand before Christmas in 2013.
She discovered her employer, Simon Johannis, of Nomis Painters and Decorating, had taken student loan repayments and taxes from her wages but had not paid them to Inland Revenue.
She found out when the department informed her it had not been receiving student loan repayments from her.
Johannis was initially "a lovely person" to work for, she said, but became rude after she confronted him.
She was made redundant five days later.
Botting, a single mother with two children, had to be prescribed sleeping pills to cope with financial stress after losing her job.
Over her four-week notice period, Botting said, she was not allowed to take leave as previously agreed. She was put to work painting Johannis' parents' property and had to make alternative childcare arrangements.
She said she had to take unpaid time off work to provide evidence to Inland Revenue that she had worked for Nomis, and had to pay interest and penalties on her student loan because it had not been paid.
Johannis said Botting was let go because there was no work for her.
The authority rejected that claim and said her whistleblowing was probably a factor in her redundancy.
"I find on the balance of probabilities that Nomis has an ulterior reason for terminating its relationship with Botting, which was not a genuine redundancy," ERA member Helen Boyle said.
Inland Revenue was investigating the incident.
Nomis was ordered to pay Botting $10,000 in compensation and a further $1980 for lost wages.
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