KEY POINTS:
An employee has won a $7500 payout after quitting her job because she had too little to do.
Project director Janine Robbins took TelstraClear to the Employment Relations Authority after restructuring left her feeling "like a spare piece of furniture".
"I go to work and I take pride
in what I do," she told the Herald on Sunday. "I don't want to go into work and put my feet up and read the newspaper. I went from being quite a senior person working on reasonably significant projects to feeling like a spare piece of furniture. It was demoralising."
Robbins returned from parental leave in July 2006 to find her former employer had restructured, leaving her little to do in her part-time job.
In her evidence to the authority, the Wellington resident said, at most, she was fully engaged for only half her time. In November 2006, she sent an email to her manager asking that her position be declared redundant. "I have once again found myself in a situation where I have nothing much to do," she wrote.
The proposal was rejected.
According to the authority's determination, when Robbins returned from a break in January last year, she had, by her calculations, "work to occupy me for 10 per cent of the time". She quit a few days later.
TelstraClear communications manager Chris Mirams said it was inappropriate to comment on the details of the case. "We have taken note of some of the issues raised for the future. We accept those discussions and we will move on," he said.
Asked if that meant the company had learnt a lesson, Mirams said: "Everyone is always learning."
The determination said the company gave evidence it had no obligation to engage with Robbins about the restructuring because she was not directly affected. The authority disagreed. The company also argued Robbins had enough to do and would have understood business fluctuations would account for "downtime".
The authority accepted TelstraClear's evidence that if the company had known how little work Robbins had, it would have taken more significant steps. But TelstraClear witnesses said there was never any attempt to see if work done by contractors could be performed instead by Robbins.
James Crichton, for the authority, said a "fair and reasonable" employer would have been more proactive in finding work for a senior employee.
The authority awarded Robbins $7500, but did not uphold her argument she was unjustifiably disadvantaged by having to pay back more than $3000 parental leave pay.
Robbins, who has since found a job in project directing, regarded the decision as a moral victory. But she said it had been difficult and she had not benefited financially.
