Doctor to pay for email dismissal

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

An Auckland doctor who fired an employee by email after the woman reported missing money to the police has been ordered to pay her almost $14,000 in damages and costs.

The Employment Relations Authority found Dr Judy Gill's dismissal of Angela Porfiriadis as part-time receptionist and office manager at Auckland Metro Doctors in Queen St was "abrupt, harsh and unjustified on any basis it is looked at".

Authority member Janet Scott also said advice by Dr Gill to Ms Porfiriadis that she would deduct $245 in missing cash from a bonus entitlement was an unjustifiable disciplinary action without a fair or reasonable inquiry.

Dr Gill failed to appear at an authority hearing, after indicating difficulties finding a relieving doctor, but said in a written submission that the lost cash was a red herring.

She said Ms Porfiriadis, a university student, was employed casually with no expectation of continuing work and had received written notice several weeks earlier of a need to restructure the business.

But Ms Scott noted that the worker, who impressed her as a careful and truthful witness, was issued with a new uniform blouse on the same day the money went missing from a petty-cash drawer while she was away at lunch.

Ms Porfiriadis said she reported the loss to Dr Gill but was told not to worry about it.

The doctor subsequently told her in writing that the money would be deducted from her bonus, so she replied that she therefore wanted the loss reported to the police.

Dr Gill told her this was unnecessary as insurance would not cover the loss, so Ms Porfiriadis went to the police herself.

The next day, she received an email dismissing her and asking her to return her uniform and keys to the surgery or to the doctor's home.

She said she was too embarrassed to go to the surgery so she took the items to the home, which was being minded by a man who turned out, to her humiliation, to be a family friend active in the Greek community.

Ms Scott found that the dismissal had nothing to do with changes in the medical practice, and the most probable reason for it was that Ms Porfiriadis went to the police against Dr Gill's wishes.

She was given no chance to respond to any allegations, but was simply dismissed by email "contrary to all principles requiring dismissal to be for a good reason and attended by fair and reasonable treatment".

Dr Gill has been ordered to pay Ms Porfiriadis $5964 in lost wages, $5000 in compensation for humiliation, $2500 in costs and $534 as the remaining value of her bonus entitlement.

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

She said she was unable to find a temporary doctor to treat her patients during the employment hearing which she failed to attend, and had lodged a complaint with the authority for allegedly failing to give her a proper opportunity to state her case.

Asked if the missing cash had turned up, she said this was "totally irrelevant", but she denied deducting the amount from Ms Porfiriadis' entitlements in any case.

Ms Porfiriadis' advocate, Grant Pratt, noted that Dr Gill did not take up an invitation by the authority to seek an alternative hearing date and said he had lodged a compliance order application to enforce the award.