Man made redundant when he lived too long

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http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/14829417/man-made-redundant-when-he-lived-too-long/

NZ Newswire
September 12, 2012, 10:24 am

A man with cancer who was made redundant when he lived longer than his employers expected will get thousands of dollars of compensation.

Len Clapham, who has a life-threatening cancer, was given a business development manager job with certain time-limited tasks to do but with no end point by his employers Alexander & Co. Ltd, with whom he has family links, in July 2010.

But he was made redundant at the end of May 2011, his employers saying they had concerns with his performance and with his refusal to provide full health disclosure.

Employment Relations Authority member James Crichton said the evidence for the company "could not be plainer that it did not anticipate having to bring the employment relationship to an end because it thought that it would end naturally by the death of the incumbent".

The company was in a downturn and had sought extra health information from Mr Clapham, who thought the company's requests were a breach of privacy.

But the redundancy, which was issued a day after their final request for health information, breached Mr Clapham's contract which required a month's consultation.

Mr Crichton said there was no evidence the company had been considering redundancy prior to Mr Clapham's dismissal.

"This is a case where, for whatever reason, Alexander & Co simply lost patience with an employee and brought the employment to an end under the guise of a restructuring."

The company was ordered to pay Mr Clapham $12,000 in compensation and 14 weeks salary.