Mushroom picker unfairly dismissed

A mushroom picker was accused of stealing a colleague's mobile phone. Photo / Thinkstock

A mushroom picker who was accused of stealing a colleague's mobile phone has won a case of unfair dismissal after his bosses failed to investigate the allegations properly.

Sothy 'David' Lim had worked for Christchurch-based Meadow Mushrooms Ltd for 20 years when the incident happened in August last year.

He claimed the company had breached its duty to maintain his trust and confidence, and intruded on his privacy, and sought compensation of $30,000 through the Employment Relations Authority (ERA).

The company denied this, saying he had resigned after a disciplinary process in which he was found to have stolen a colleague's mobile phone from the workplace.

The row started after fellow worker Babs Ryde discovered her phone and phone wallet containing Eftpos cards and her driver's licence was missing from her handbag.

She reported it to her managers, and contacted her husband who traced the phone using the 'Find My Phone' app to an address in Wigram.

Harvesting manager Sylvia MacLellan and harvesting co-ordinator Tony Li went to the address, Wigram Lodge, which Mr Li recognised as being where Mr Lim lived.

However, Mr Lim was not at home, and the pair went back to the office to check all employees' addresses to see if any others lived in the area. None did.

When they returned later, they confronted Mr Lim. The lodge security guard decided to search Mr Lim and his room.

Mr Li and Ms MacLellan stood outside, and Mr Li rang the missing phone, but no ringing sound could be heard. No phone other than Mr Lim's own phone was found in his room.

The phone was later found by Ms Ryde and her family in bushes outside Wigram Lodge.

Mr Lim said he could not explain why the phone had been found near his address "when he had never had the phone".

A former truck driver for Meadow Mushrooms also lived at the lodge, he said, as well as other people he recognised from times they had worked for the company.

But Meadow Mushroom ruled his employment was "no longer tenable", while Mr Lim said he had no motivation to keep working there because his integrity and honesty had been questioned.

The ERA ruled the company had breached its duty of good faith by involving the security guard, and ruled the two managers were "complicit" in the search of his room and bag.

The company had also carried out an "inadequate investigation in haste", it said, having not considered Mr Lim's explanations and not interviewing Ms Ryde's husband to verify the tracking information. It did not have sufficient proof that Mr Lim had taken the phone, the authority said.

"The area Ms Ryde's phone was kept in was open to all employees and contractors that may have been in Meadow's premises that afternoon."

The ERA ruled Mr Lim was unjustifiably dismissed and Meadow Mushrooms was ordered to pay $4839 in lost wages and $3000 in compensation.