Suspicion is not enough

Kirsten Bilkey. Photo / NZ Herald

A fashion boutique has been ordered to pay more than $1000 in bonuses to a former employee who was suspected of trying to steal a pair of jeans from the store.

University student Emma Christie took upmarket Remuera clothing store Browns Ltd to the Employment Relations Authority, complaining that the store had refused to pay her a bonus that was written into her contract.

Boutique owner Kirsten Bilkey - whose family also owns the well-known jewellery store next door - said Christie didn't deserve the $1038 bonus because she had planned to steal a pair of jeans and had "suspicious intention". But the ERA found against Browns Ltd, saying Bilkey's suspicions did not constitute proof.

Christie worked as a sales assistant at the Remuera store on a fixed-term contract, from November 2009 until February last year.

After she finished her last rostered hours, Christie expected to receive a final pay cheque of bonuses made up of $961 in wages and $77 in holiday pay - $2 for every hour worked over summer.

But, in evidence to the ERA, Bilkey said she had refused to pay the bonus because of her suspicions.

"It was a bonus and I didn't think, morally, anyone deserves a bonus for acting dishonestly," she insisted afterwards.

Christie had taken the Browns own-brand jeans from stock in December and filled in an invoice in the store's appro book, saying she was allowed to take them "on approval".

This was not standard procedure, said Bilkey, and on Christie's last day when asked by management if she had paid for the jeans, Christie said she had forgotten. The student then settled the $99 account.

But Bilkey told the ERA there had been a "chain of circumstances" that led her to become suspicious of Christie.

Around the same time, she noticed that stock was missing and magnetic tags had been removed from clothes before they were sold.

ERA member Alastair Dumbleton said the company's security concerns were understandable, because they had recently been victims of a robbery at the store.

Bilkey was suspicious that some staff might have assisted the robbers by supplying "inside information".

But when her employer refused to make the final payment, Christie took legal action, also seeking $2000 compensation for hurt and humiliation.

The ERA found that Christie had worked all of her rostered hours and was entitled to the bonus as part of her contract as well as $1650 in legal costs.

"Suspicion is one thing, proof entirely another," said Dumbleton.

In the end, it was the lawyers who got the last laugh: the legal costs of taking the dispute to an ERA hearing outweighed the $1000 bonus that was at issue, Dumbleton noted.