Man fired after $23,000 phone bill

The employee was on a three-week holiday in Sri Lanka when he generated the gigantic phone bill on his company cellphone. Photo / iStock

A man fired after racking up a $23k bill on his work phone and returning to work late from a holiday was justifiably dismissed, the Employment Relations Authority has found.

The Mighty River Power employee, who cannot be named because his wife's name is suppressed, was on a three-week holiday in Sri Lanka when he generated the gigantic phone bill on his company cellphone - most of which was due to roaming data charges.

He was charged around $6 for international phone calls and texts, with the rest of the charges came from 1.5GB of roaming data.

The data used on various applications, including iTunes, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Snapchat, Instagram, Gmail, Akamai and Dropbox.

An analyst who reviewed the data use information described it as "quite consistent" and suggested it was due to apps syncing in the background, rather than normal internet browsing.

Upon returning to New Zealand, the employee was confronted by his boss about the data use and also for arriving back to work a day late and driving a company car while only having had a few hours of sleep.

He was dismissed from his job and made a complaint with the ERA.

When the charges were challenged by Mighty River Power, Spark advised that a text had been sent to warn that $2486 of roaming charges had been incurred - but proof of this text could not be established.

However, the ERA found it could be established the man was aware of the high cost of international roaming data, as he had received texts from Spark when entering Australia and Sri Lanka that warned him of the charges.

The ERA determined his dismissal was justified due to his late arrival back at work and his failure to inform his supervisor. However, it found his phone use was due to "ignorance and inadvertence" and did not constitute serious misconduct.

The ERA found the nature of his dismissal was unfair, and he was not given a fair chance to explain the bill.

The company was ordered to pay him $6000 in compensation for "loss of dignity and injury to his feelings".

A counterclaim from Mighty River Power seeking order for the man to pay the data charges himself was declined.