A woman who was wrongly fired for stealing a $1 bag of chips from her work spent more on her legal costs than what she received in compensation.
Kaye Gillan was awarded $23,243.82 in compensation and lost wages by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) after she was found to have been unjustifiably dismissed by her employer, Birchleigh Management Limited.
But her legal costs for co-representation amounted to $35,878.97, of which she sought to recover the full amount in court.
Read more: Woman wins compo after being fired for stealing bag of chips
Gillan – a caregiver who had worked for Birchleigh since 2004 – submitted to the authority the she should get full costs because the case lasted nearly two years and Birchleigh, without conscience, had forced her to undergo a full trial.