Council of Trade Unions media release
11 November 2010
Café chef’s 90 day sacking ‘for using too much sauce’
A breakfast chef in a Timaru café was sacked under the 90 day law and the only reason his employer could give was that
he was ‘using too much sauce and aioli’. The story is the latest 90 day unfair dismissal case released on video by the
CTU today.
Aaron Greave began working at the MJC Café and Wine Bar in Timaru in July. He was not given a written employment
agreement and there was no mention of a 90 day clause until he was sacked. There had been no indication that his
performance was anything other than satisfactory.
You can see Aaron tell his own story at www.youtube.com/NZCTU.
CTU Secretary Peter Conway said: “This is yet another case of an employer using the 90 day law as a convenient way of
getting rid of an employee for any reason, and not because they have given them a chance and found them incompetent.”
As in other cases brought to our attention, the CTU has arranged legal advice for Aaron to pursue remedies with the
employer. Peter Conway said that Aaron does not want anyone to cease going to the café and neither he nor the CTU want
any commercial impact on the business as a result of Aaron speaking out on his rights at work. What Aaron wants in
addition to a remedy in his case is for the employment practices to improve at the café and for the 90 day law to be
dropped.
“If this law is extended to every workplace in New Zealand we will see many more skilled workers sacked on a whim by
some employers and the job security of every worker who changes jobs will be all but swept away. As with the case of the
dairy herd manager whose case we highlighted on Monday, Aaron Greave’s sacking shows that the 90 day law is not
improving New Zealand’s productivity; it is actually undermining it by putting experienced employees out of work and
even driving them out of the country.”
ENDS