The owner of the Junction Hotel near Blenheim has been ordered by the Employment Relations Authority to pay a former employee nearly $29,000.
Dawn Langdon left her job as bar manager of the hotel last year. The ERA found that she should not have been expected to put up with her employer Mike Pink's breaches of good faith.
According to Langdon, Pink ignored bully claims and made her feel like a "complete failure." She emailed Mr Pink at the time, stating: "I am extremely upset and humiliated over the way I have been treated, when measured against the commitment and loyalty I have shown your business during my employment."
She received a letter from Pink stating she had bombarded him with emails and personal meetings, and demanding that he should be compensated for time wasted.
"I have had to spend hours in replying to your tirades which has kept me away from doing my normal work and as I am partially incapacitated at present, I find this totally unacceptable," he wrote. "I think a figure of $500 is fair and I expect to receive this within seven days."
The ERA found Pink had behaved in a way calculated or likely to severely damage the employment relationship, and ordered him to pay reimbursement of lost wages, payment for the lost benefit of the employer's contribution to KiwiSaver, and holiday pay.
Pink was also ordered to pay compensation for humilation, loss of dignity, and injury to feelings of $18,000.
The Junction Hotel and Bar was due to be demolished in late July, but the demolition was delayed after asbestos was found in the property's ceilings and near window frames.
