Mother sacked at end of maternity leave gets payout

A woman who was made redundant at the end of her maternity leave has been awarded nearly $13,000 for unfair dismissal.

Yunyun Fei had been employed as a marketing executive at Moneyworld for almost four years when she was made redundant shortly before her return to work in September last year, the Employment Relations Authority in Auckland was told.

Mrs Fei disputed the validity of her redundancy and said she was dismissed because she had two young children and she had given an "unfavourable" statement to police about a company director who was facing money laundering charges.

Director Danny Lee, who resigned in December, said Ms Fei was made redundant because the company had closed its office in China and "shifted the focus away" from her area of work.

The expense of defending the money laundering charges was also a factor, he said.

In August Mr Lee offered Mrs Fei part-time work which she declined.

Authority member Yvonne Oldfield said the company's need to cut staff was genuine but the reason was not - the China office had closed over a year prior to Mrs Fei's redundancy and six months prior to the start of her maternity leave.

Ms Oldfield said Mrs Fei's termination was unjustified but she had contributed to her "financial predicament" by not accepting the offer of part-time work.

Mrs Fei was awarded $7800 for lost earnings, $5000 for hurt and humiliation and $70 for authority filing fees.

- NZPA