Tears at redundancy outcome

The Court of Appeal has upheld an earlier Employment Court decision.

A Tauranga woman at the centre of a four-year employment battle yesterday broke down in tears after learning the Court of Appeal had ruled in her favour.

Judith Brake said she had waited years for the case to be finalised.

The Court of Appeal upheld an earlier Employment Court decision that Grace Team Accounting, her former employer, failed to show her redundancy was justified.

That decision awarded Ms Brake $65,000 for lost earnings and $20,000 for humiliation and injury to her feelings.

"It's taken so, so long, I've got tears in my eyes. It's been a very long, hard road," she said after the Bay of Plenty Times told her of the decision.

Ms Brake left her accountant's job at KPMG to take up a position of senior accountant with Grace Team Accounting in October 2009 on the understanding it was a long-term position.

Six months into the role senior members of the business told her they had "miscalculated figures" and the practice was in crisis, which required redundancies.

Former lawyer Warwick Reid, Ms Brake's ex-husband, took her case to the Employment Relations Authority in 2011 and lost. He appealed the decision to the Employment Court, which ruled in Ms Brake's favour.

Grace Team Accounting then referred the case to the Court of Appeal which dismissed the firm's appeal.

Ms Brake said although she expected the decision to be dismissed, it was a long time coming: "If Grace Team Accounting had not rung me that day and requested me to go for a [pre-employment] meeting, I would still be working at KPMG now.

"They promised me full-time, long-term employment and then six months later they made me and two others redundant. They should have known then, when they employed me, they had too many employees."

Since being made redundant, Ms Brake has been unable to find another full-time job. She works one day a week.

"I'm just so glad for other employees to know there is hope there for them."

Ms Brake said she might buy a car with the money.

Lindsay Grace, from Grace Team Accounting, declined to comment.