She further raised concerns with her manager that fire exits were blocked by recycling bins and that there was a collection of rubbish, drainpipes and a skateboard along the fire exit path.
The switch that was meant to automatically open the fire exit door when the alarm was activated also didn't work, the ERA heard.
Cavanagh said she had to use her manager's rolling chair to move crates and boxes of beer and when she was eventually provided with a trolley its tyres were flat.
When the Eftpos machine stopped working one day and patrons became frustrated, she contacted her manager for help but was told "it will be fine, you don't need me".
Cavanagh said she took her responsibilities as a bar manager seriously and had challenged patrons' level of intoxication, questioned how they were travelling home from the bar and checked their membership status in order to be able to serve them.
"While undertaking her training for the bar manager's licence, Ms Cavanagh says that she had identified questionable processes and behaviours regarding the way patrons behaved in the bar and the bar staff itself. Ms Cavanagh says despite her efforts, management and the patrons refused to comply with legislated requirements," the decision said.
Cavanagh said she dealt with regular messages from nearby residents about the noise level, and was concerned there was no security available to deal with unruly clients.
On April 26, 2015, she received a complaint that a member was intoxicated. He happened to be the manager's husband.
"Ms Cavanagh said that when he approached the bar, she advised the patron of the complaint and he became defensive and suggested that she ring his wife, the manager," the decision said.
She completed an incident report and notified police.
"She said the manager's husband refused to leave the premises when he was asked to leave and a committee member refused to escort him off the premises. When the manager's husband did eventually leave, he returned twice," the decision said.
Cavanagh said she was issued with a written warning for contacting the police.
Following this incident, Cavanagh said she was singled out to do work that other employees were not required to undertake, including stacking the chiller four crates high.
In June that year she said she had a "healthy" discussion with colleagues about legal requirements, drinking culture and host responsibility. However, she said there was no follow up to her concerns about the conduct of patrons.
When she arrived for her shift two weeks later, she was confronted by the manager and a committee member who said she was the subject of a serious misconduct investigation for allegedly selling two bottles of wine to an ex-president of the RSA. She was stood down for her shift that day without any proper investigation, Cavanagh said.
Her rostered hours of work then suddenly decreased from 40 to 23 hours a week and when she arrived for her shift on July 22 she found the alarm code had been changed.
"When she inquired of the manager why the alarm code had been changed, Ms Cavanagh was told to leave the building as she had no right to be inside," the decision said.
She was then asked to return her keys and advised she was no longer employed by the RSA.
Authority member Vicki Campbell found that the RSA had not conducted itself - "in all the circumstances of this case" - as a fair and reasonable employer.
"Ms Cavanagh has given compelling evidence that Piha is a small community in which gossip and rumours become fact and the unjustified disciplinary action was well known in the community," the decision said.
Cavanagh had since moved from Piha to Christchurch.
The Piha RSA manager at the time, Sheila DeWit, who has since left the job, said Cavanagh's allegations were untrue.
She said the conflict occurred as a result of Cavanagh selling wine to a non-RSA member - even though the person was a former president of the organisation they had not been a member for some two years, she said. This meant the bar could have lost its licence.
DeWit denied that Cavanagh had ever been made to do menial tasks.
She said she'd had no animosity towards Cavanagh for refusing to serve her husband.
"I actually trespassed him at the time," she said. "That is absolute rubbish, she was never reprimanded for calling the police - I didn't even know she had called the police for one. Secondly, her duties never, ever changed."
DeWit added that council inspectors had given the club an A health and safety rating and the Fire Service had inspected the building's emergency exits and given it the all-clear.
"I don't believe that what she has said is correct at all," she said.
She wished to give an assurance that the Piha RSA was clean, safe, and complied with all regulations.
RSA member Matthew McMillan, who along with a small team has been involved with helping the Piha RSA, said there had been some issues at the club in the past, but these had subsequently been addressed and resolved. He added that the Piha RSA now wished to move on.
