Auckland doctor ordered to pay fired employee

By MATHEW DEARNALEY


An Auckland doctor has been accused by the Employment Relations Authority of treating it with contempt and must pay an award of $14,000 within a fortnight.

Authority member Janet Scott initially ordered Dr Judy Gill, trading in Queen St as Auckland Metro Doctors and Travelcare, to pay a former employee $11,500 in lost wages and compensation for unjustified dismissal.

She made that order in July and added a costs award of $2500 in September.

This was after she found Dr Gill's dismissal by email of part-time receptionist and office manager Angela Porfiriadis "abrupt, harsh and unjustified on any basis it is looked at".

But Dr Gill made no attempt to pay the money, so Ms Scott has this week issued a compliance order requiring her to do so by December 17.

Although the latest authority decision does not spell out what will happen to Dr Gill if she does not pay up, except for facing a 7 per cent interest charge, the Employment Relations Act provides for stiff penalties for defying compliance orders.

Ms Porfiriadis' advocate, Grant Pratt, said these could include a fine of up to $40,000, three months in prison and the confiscation of property on application to the Employment Court.

"I would anticipate instructions from my client to pursue that course of action in the event the money isn't paid," he said.

Ms Scott said Dr Gill's only advice to the authority about failing to pay was that she was unable to do so. But the doctor also accepted at a hearing two weeks ago she was the trustee of a trust with "significant assets".

Dr Gill told the Herald in September she could not pay up as she was a single parent of four children and dependent on family income support from the state to supplement modest earnings from her sole practice.

She said she was unable to attend the authority's hearing of Ms Porfiriadis' unjustified dismissal claim as she could not find a temporary doctor to treat her patients in her absence. She had lodged a complaint to the authority for failing to give her a proper opportunity to state her case.

Ms Scott said in her latest decision that it was clear Dr Gill had from the start treated the dismissal claim and the employment authority with an attitude of contempt.

"Her failure to pay the orders made is consistent with her overall attitude ... " she added.

But although Dr Gill did not lodge an appeal against the authority's initial findings, Ms Scott has agreed to consider an application from the doctor to reopen an investigation of the unjustified dismissal claim.

She has in the meantime ordered Dr Gill to pay the $14,000 to the Labour Department to be held in an interest-bearing bank account for a refund if the application is successful, or for payment to Ms Porfiriadis if it fails.

Dr Gill would not disclose yesterday whether she would pay the money in time, except to say "my position has not changed".