Dairy worker sacked within 90 days for protecting a migrant worker
A dairy worker and his family are the latest victims of summary dismissal under the 90-day fire at will law highlighted in another video released by the CTU.
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.
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.”
TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs said the case was another example of how a law that claimed to be very targeted and specific was in fact hurting all workers.
“The government told us this law would get young people into work. In fact it has done the opposite – unemployment is worse than when the law was passed, and skilled, qualified, experienced workers with families and responsibilities are losing their jobs. It’s a travesty of a law.”
The CTU has also released a further video telling the story of a chef who was sacked within 90 days for ‘using too much aioli and sauce’.
