Cheeky photo causes payout cut

Photo / Wairarapa Times-Age

A pizza cook who was unfairly fired has had his payment for lost wages reduced by the Employment Relations Authority after a photograph of him and three others sporting the company's name on their buttocks was found.

Calum MacDonald worked at the Browns Bay Domino's pizza outlet as a cook, on the counter and as a pizza delivery man.

But the then 16-year-old was fired after showing up for work twice with no petrol in his car, according to an Employment Relations Authority finding, released to the Herald this week.

He took his case to the ERA last month and was awarded $315 for lost earnings at another Domino's shop, $1650 for lost wages at the Browns Bay shop and $2500 for humiliation after being fired in a Domino's carpark.

However, Employment Relations Authority member Eleanor Robinson reduced the $1650 lost wages from the Browns Bay shop by 40 per cent after a photograph of Mr MacDonald and three other former employees was found.

She said the photograph showed "Mr MacDonald and three other ex-employees displaying the letters of the franchisor brand 'Domino's' on their bare buttocks."

Mr MacDonald's employer, Belgrade Holding Company, owned two Domino's shops on the North Shore - one in Forrest Hill and the other in Browns Bay.

The Forrest Hill shop, where Mr MacDonald first worked, was sold and Mr MacDonald was made redundant.

But Ms Robinson said the redundancy was unfair because Mr MacDonald was given only two weeks' notice - not one month as stipulated by law - and there was no consultation.

A few weeks later, Mr MacDonald landed a job at Belgrade's Browns Bay Domino's shop.

But after turning up to work without petrol and having to use money out of the till - which he paid back - Mr MacDonald was taken out to the carpark and told he was fired.

Belgrade gave evidence, through director Vera Zjajic, that the photo also led to Mr MacDonald being fired.

She said there would have been "serious implications" for the business if the franchise owner had been made aware of the photo.