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A sacked teenage employee who was forced to sign a "confession" that she stole money from her employer has won a wrongful dismissal case.
The Employment Relations Authority has ordered Botany Plastics Limited's owner Mary Anne Murray to pay Magdalene Mudge $5787 in lost wages and $8000 in compensation.
Seventeen-year-old Ms Mudge told the authority Mrs Murray threatened to call the police if she did not sign a dictated note saying she stole $613 from the Auckland company last June.
She said she was called into Mrs Murray's office and told she was dismissed, without any representation or being allowed to look at any evidence.
When she objected to writing a note admitting to stealing the money, Mrs Murray threatened to call the police, which would result in her getting a police record.
"While I have not had any convictions and I have not had any encounters with the police, I was still very scared of them as I think a lot of young people are," Ms Mudge said.
The authority said it did not accept Mrs Murray's evidence that she did not threaten to take legal action, because in a letter to Ms Mudge's representative she wrote that unless the personal grievance against her was retracted, she would contact the police.
- NZPA
