KEY POINTS:
A woman, who was sacked for allegedly going to a colleague's house and beating her up, has lost her claim of unjustified dismissal.
Donna Maree Tauhore, who worked at Farmers department store in Masterton, took her case to the Employment Relations Authority after her dismissal in 2005.
She had been accused of telling her boss she needed to go home to change her clothes, and instead going to her co-worker's house and hitting her repeatedly in the head, in a dispute over a man.
The following day the co-worker received a text message from Ms Tauhore which began: "You're lucky I don't come round there and smash you good and proper bitch..."
At a disciplinary meeting with her employer, Ms Tauhore said she did not attack her workmate and she was later found not guilty in a District Court trial of assault.
Nonetheless Ms Tauhore was fired for seriously breaching work rules, including not committing violence or threats of violence against fellow workers.
In a decision released today, the ERA found that based on the information Farmers had at the time, it was reasonable in its decision to sack her.
"It is clear law that simply because a worker is dismissed for reasons later the subject of a criminal trial at which the worker is acquitted, it does not follow that the worker must have been unjustifiably dismissed," it said.
- NZPA
