A woman who lost her job while on maternity leave has won about $20,000 in compensation and lost wages in an Employment Relations Authority ruling.
Tanya Cooper had worked at the Christchurch Casino Ltd for nearly six years before she went on leave and gave birth to a baby boy in April 2009.
She had started as a service worker and moved up the ranks to a shift manager.
The Casino said it would hold her job open for a year, but told her about three months into her leave it was restructuring.
Ms Cooper applied for new management positions, but was instead offered a lesser role for less money, though the company would retain her previous salary for six months.
Ms Cooper said she suffered stress and humiliation from the uncertainty about her job as well as looking after a baby after a difficult birth.
She felt the demotion was a black mark on her name.
The Casino said Ms Cooper had resigned, after her position was genuinely disestablished.
Helen Doyle of the ERA did not accept this.
"I am not satisfied that the redundancy was genuine and I was not satisfied that there was no prospect of Ms Cooper being appointed to a position that was substantially similar to the position held by her at the beginning of her parental leave."
Ms Cooper had extra protection because she was on parental leave, which means a company has more obligation to rehire someone if a similar position is available.
Ms Doyle awarded Ms Cooper $12000 compensation for humiliation and distress.
She also awarded her lost wages for seven months from the time she would have returned to work, minus income from her new job.
This amount was yet to be worked out, but Ms Cooper says she would have been paid nearly $24,000 and her earnings from her new job were about $15,500, leaving a payout of around $8500.
NZN