A Pak'n Save security officer who was fired for reporting what looked to be theft at the self-checkout areas has been awarded more than $21,000 for unjustified dismissal.
Robert Edlin was working at a Lower Hutt Pak'n Save as a loss prevention officer in 2016 when he saw on the security cameras a child eating a muesli bar at the self-checkout area.
He thought he saw the child's mother throw away the wrapper without scanning it, and called through to the supervisor to alert her of it.
The simple action lead to Edlin's dismissal, which more than a year on has been found to be unjustified by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA).
The company that ran the supermarket, Beare Haven Investments Limited, claimed Edlin had breached the store's policy.
A memo signed by the store's owner, Keiran O'Sullivan, and three staff including Edlin on July 3, 2014, said security staff must watch customers from the point of taking or concealing items until they left the store.
They cannot apprehend the person or ask for assistance before the person has left the store, and must watch the person 100 per cent of the time, the memo said.
The memo said departure from the rules would amount to serious misconduct likely to result in dismissal, and that O'Sullivan was no longer prepared to accept a departure from those policies.
On the day of the incident, Edlin said he saw the child eating the bar and then saw the mother disposing of the wrapper, which had a barcode on it.
"So rather than just leave it, I called to the supervisor downstairs in charge of the check-out, told her what I had seen, and that is what I used to do quite often," he told the ERA.
He saw the supervisor approach the customer on his surveillance screen, so carried on with his other work.
He said it was common procedure to call down to the supervisor when it was a simple case of something not being scanned, or being wrongly scanned, and was consistent with the training he received when he first took the role.
The customer, who "took umbrage" at being approached by the supervisor, laid a complaint about the incident.
O'Sullivan, who Edlin said was "seething" about the matter, instigated a disciplinary process which ended in Edlin's dismissal.
A dismissal letter told Edlin he had caused "severe embarrassment" to his employer.
In its investigation, the ERA found Beare Haven did not have a proper policy or procedure as O'Sullivan said "on the job is the best training".
O'Sullivan also accepted there had been concerns about the previous supervisor who had trained Edlin.
"In other words there is a concession Mr Edlin was trained by someone who in the employer's view did not operate in accordance with the company's wishes," the ERA report said.
The report said Edlin was acting as he was known to do, and there was no evidence to show he had been instructed not to act that way.
O'Sullivan told the ERA he fired Edlin for refusing to take responsibility for what had happened. He said if Edlin had conceded his actions were wrong he would not have been dismissed.
But Edlin said he felt pressured at the disciplinary meeting when four company representatives showed up, and felt that he was being pushed to make an admission of guilt, which he would not do.
"There can be little surprise he considered it an ambush and acted defensively," the report said.
It said Beare Haven "fell well short of justifying the dismissal".
The ERA ordered Beare Haven to pay $9812.40 in lost wages and a further $12,000 compensation for humiliation, loss and dignity, and injury to Edlin's feelings.
