A local painter must pay an ex-employee more than $20,000 over an unjustified dismissal last year, the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has determined.

Everest Painters and Decorators owner James Bees has been ordered to pay the apprentice brushhand who worked for him for two years $10,000 in compensation, plus a similar amount again for her final wages, public holiday pay, annual leave entitlement and more.

Text messages between the ex-employee and James made public as part of the ERA decision show he told her “I won’t pay unless I have to”.

The ex-employee, who worked for James for just over two years on a sponsorship visa, had offered to resign in a heated phone call between her and James which began when she complained about having to work with a co-worker she said was impaired by cannabis.

At the time she offered to work out her notice period, but James initially declined, telling her to “leave right now”. 

She emailed James the following evening, reiterating her offer to work out her notice, and at 4.41am the next day he told her, via email, to travel to Queenstown for a job that same morning.

She said she did not see the email until after 7.38am. When she told him she could not travel to work at such short notice, James replied via text saying she had breached their contract.

“Nope your required at work if not today tomorrow as 3 days not working tomorrow 3 days missing is breach of contract. I accept your resignation your contracts now terminated [sic].”

ERA member Antoinette Baird said in her decision that she found James “dismissed her summarily on what appears to be purported ‘abandonment’ of employment” during her notice period.

She said he “poorly communicated an immediate aggressively worded decision to terminate based on an erroneous ‘abandonment’ claim”.

This was “far from what a fair and reasonable employer could have done in the circumstances at the time.”

The ex-employee went on to secure a new job with higher pay shortly after she was fired, Antoinette said.

PHOTO: Supplied