Manager fired while attending birth awarded $15,000

File photo / NZ Herald

A packaging plant manager was awarded more than $15,000 after being fired for never returning from a trip to Australia to attend the birth of his daughter.

Paul Moses was dismissed from his job as Depot Manager at Orora Packaging New Zealand Limited's Whakatu packaging plant on February 5, 2014.

Mr Moses had taken 22 days annual leave from mid-December to mid-January so he could go to Australia where his wife was due to give birth.

He told his boss that his wife was due in mid-January, but she had always given birth four weeks early and he expected the same thing to happen this time round.

However, medical documents produced at the Employment Relations Authority showed his wife's actual due date was in February.

Mr Moses emailed the head of HR for the company three days before he was due back at work and said there had been complications with his wife's pregnancy, and that he'd need two more weeks off work because the baby hadn't yet been born.

His boss offered him two weeks paternity leave, but never received a response from Mr Moses.

On February 3, 2014 Mr Moses emailed the head of HR to say his wife had now hit 40 weeks, which was 4 weeks longer than his other three children. Although she was having contractions, there was no sign of the baby, so Mr Moses said in the email that he would be returning to work on 17 February.

He said he would need to take sick leave that day and the following day "and then consume whatever entitlements I have for parental leave or carers leave".

On February 5, the company responded to say Mr Moses' was being dismissed for his "inability to return to work as requested".

Member of the ERA Trish MacKinnon found in her decision published this week that this was not the action of a fair and reasonable employer.

"In terminating Mr Moses' employment before conducting the disciplinary meeting it had notified him would take place, Orora denied him the opportunity to respond to its concerns and to explain his actions," she said.

"The company clearly had suspicions about his truthfulness regarding the expected date of birth of his daughter.

"However, it did not put those concerns to Mr Moses, other than obliquely by referring to its tentative view that he had "somewhat abused his extended time off"," she said.

Ms MacKinnon awarded compensation and three months' lost wages to Mr Moses.

However, she found that Mr Moses contributed to the situation by giving his boss inaccurate information around the due date of his wife.

During the investigation Meeting Mr Moses insisted he had always has January 14 in mind as the date his daughter would be born. Ms MacKinnon found this was at odds with his leave application when he told his boss that the baby was due in january but he expected the birth up to four weeks earlier.

With that in mind, Ms MacKinnon reduced the compensation and lost income by 40 per cent.

Orora was ordered to pay Mr Moses $10,825.51 for lost income and $4,500 for compensation.