Bus driver unfairly suspended for alleged assualt

The court found in favour of Merennage and awarded him around $80,000 for his unfair treatment. Photo / iStock

A bus driver found not guilty of sexually assaulting a passenger was unfairly suspended without pay and later fired by Ritchies, the Employment Court has ruled.

North Shore bus driver Keerithi Merennage took his former employer to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) last year and won his claim that he had been unjustifiably dismissed.

Ritchies then appealed and sought a new decision from the Employment Court, which released its decision today. The court found in favour of Merennage and awarded him around $80,000 for his unfair treatment.

Merennage was accused of sexually assaulting a female passenger in November 2011. Shortly afterwards he was charged by the police, and Ritchies suspended him without pay.

He was later found not guilty of the assault in a criminal trial.

Judge Christina Inglis found Ritchies actions were not those of a fair and reasonable employer and the company had made procedural failings that "were not minor". Merennage had been treated unfairly, Judge Inglis said.

The company had breached Merennage's employment agreement by failing to pay him while he was suspended, and found he had been underpaid when on a later period of paid suspension.

"He felt unsupported and branded by an employer who formed an adverse view from an early stage of the process, and who failed to adequately engage with him," Judge Inglis said.

Merennage was awarded $15,500 for the hurt and humiliation caused by Ritchies.

He was also awarded $72,856 plus holiday pay for the period of suspension without pay, as well as $2819 for a period of paid leave he was underpaid for.

The equivalent of three months' lost remuneration for the unfair dismissal at a rate of $899 per week.

The total amount was to be reduced by $20,860 because Merennage took up supermarket work while on unpaid suspension and didn't tell his former employer.

The total amount Merennage was awarded is a little over $80,000.