KEY POINTS:
A Furniture store owner who gave a shop assistant a vase for her birthday later instructed police to go to the woman's home with a search warrant and seize it back, the Employment Relations Authority has heard.
The Spanish, flute-edged vase, pictured, has been locked up at the
local police station ever since, along with four artificial flowers and two wrought iron candlesticks.
What began as a simple request for outstanding wages and holiday pay amounting to approximately $400 quickly turned bitter for employee Sandra Smillie, who was accused of not paying for staff purchases.
Last week Smillie was finally cleared of "bizarre" theft allegations made against her by Forrester Furniture of Tauranga.
The authority ordered Forrester Furniture, solely operated by Lorraine Waters, to pay its former shop assistant $1700 in unpaid holiday pay and legal costs.
Speaking after the ruling, Smillie told the Herald on Sunday she was pleased with the result, although disappointed a separate grievance claim - for the humiliation of having police turn up at her home in full view of the neighbours - did not come under the authority's jurisdiction, as the incident occurred after her resignation.
"All I really wanted to do was clear my name and stop this happening to other people," she said.
The legal fight had been costly and draining, and the police showing up at her house with a list of goods she had "stolen" - including the birthday vase - was embarrassing and "bizarre".
She recounted how relations between the two women had quickly soured once Smillie resigned and asked for her holiday pay.
Written evidence was provided to the authority by another former employee of Forrester who also claimed not to have been paid holiday pay after resigning from the store.
Waters claimed she did not owe Smillie any holiday pay. She claimed it was in fact Smillie who owed the company, for outstanding staff purchases, an accusation that eventually led to her making a formal complaint to police.
She did not appear at the hearing and told the Herald on Sunday she had instructed her lawyer to inform the authority and Smillie that the matter could not proceed, as Forrester Furniture no longer existed. She was adamant that it was Smillie who was in the wrong.
She claimed she would never have given her former employee a birthday present. "Why give a present to someone you don't like?"
She said she did not have the money to pay Smillie.
But the authority accepted Smillie's evidence that she had paid for all goods taken home from the store where she worked 12 hours a week from May to December last year. An affidavit was also provided from an associate who knew about the birthday gift, given in October.
On Thursday, Smillie was telephoned by Tauranga police and told she could pick up the vase, candle holders and artificial flowers. She told the Herald on Sunday she felt obliged to do so, but there was little chance of the vase taking pride of place on the dining room table.
