After eight months working as a kitchen hand, a 16-year-old says she felt backed into a corner by her employer who told her she no longer had a job if she did not sign a casual contract.

Then, according to a recently released decision, when her parents attempted to intervene, the owner ranted at the teen in a carpark, saying he would “destroy her”.

After a two-day hearing, the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has now ordered Buci Ltd to pay the young employee $18,327 in lost wages and compensation.

When the teen was employed as a kitchen hand at Amore Italiano Restaurant in Hobsonville, Auckland in November 2022, issues with her employment status began almost immediately with delays occurring because there was no contract.

Amore is owned by Buci Ltd, Svetlana and Mario Kotevski. Employees are predominantly high school or tertiary students; the only fulltimers are family members.

The 16-year-old worked between two and five days a week and believed she was entitled to paid sick and annual leave.

She was given a part-time employment agreement eight months after she started, which was backdated, included an outdated minimum wage and a trial period clause despite the period being passed.

The teen got advice on the contract and chose not to sign it until amendments were made. A month later Buci gave her a casual contract instead. The teen told the ERA she was not allowed to take the contract home to view and events began to spiral from there.

Her mother advised the restaurant owners about employment law in New Zealand before she told her boss, Mario Kotevski, she would not be signing the agreement until standard provisions were amended.

However, Kotevski maintained the teen would only be given a casual contract and if it was not signed, she could not work.

When the teen and her stepfather attempted to meet with Kotevski to discuss the situation she described feeling terrified and distraught about his behaviour.

The discussion was held in the restaurant carpark and Kotevski was observed waving his arms around, moving backwards and forwards in a way the stepfather described as “like a boxer”.

At one point, the decision says Kotevski was within inches of the stepfather’s face and spitting in his face.

Kotevski denied this occurred and said Macedonians articulate themselves loudly.

The teenager and her stepfather also told the ERA Kotevski had threatened to make them bankrupt, destroy her and would “make her pay”.

Amore restaurant predominantly employees students; the only fulltime employees are family members. Photo / NZME

Over the following days multiple text exchanges occurred between the teen and her boss regarding signing the contract. Kotevski also began to make up verbal warnings about using phones at work.

“You do all this and we are [SIC] still not fired you, not sure what you want, I believe your parents teaching you wrong things….. Come sign and you can work, remember this is your final warning!” Kotevski said in a text.

“Just do everything proper like I do”.

The following day a personal grievance was filed with the ERA on the basis Buci had dismissed the teen by sending her away if she did not sign the casual contract.

The investigation meeting held over two days in August 2024 showed Buci had not recorded the teen as terminated in the payroll and the approach the company had taken was unreasonable.

“Buci breached its obligations to [her] by refusing to offer her work unless she signed a casual agreement which it did not provide her a copy of and then purporting to give her a final warning to sign. This was repudiatory conduct.

“[She] was constructively dismissed by Buci. The impetus for her departure was that of Buci – it chose to give her a choice of signing the casual agreement or not working and she reacted by leaving.”

The ERA also declared the teenager was a permanent employee.

The teen’s advocate Alex Kersjes, from Sacked Kiwi, told NZME the power imbalance between employee and employer could often be exacerbated when the worker is younger.

Workers' advocate Alex Kersjes says youth are often treated unfairly because of a power imbalance. Photo / Supplied

“We often find these more vulnerable employees are taken advantage of for varying reasons. It may well be that younger employees are less knowledgeable and experienced. Or simply through being young they are generally more timid and more susceptible to being taken of advantage of,” Kersjes said.

Kersjes encouraged employees to ask questions and always seek advice, especially those who have limited experience in the workforce.

Buci’s counsel Garry Pollack told NZME his client denies spitting and the basis of the evidence was security cameras with no voice recordings.

“The ERA seems to have based this part on the basis that security cameras recorded the meeting outside but the parties had their backs to the cameras and there was no voice recording. So there was no objective evidence of this occurring.

“The determination does not record that [name] stepfather accepted he raised his voice first,” Pollack said.

Pollack said all employees at the restaurant had signed written agreements and maintained the teenager also had one, which was unsigned because of an oversight.

The ERA ordered Buci to pay $17,000 in compensation, $964 in lost wages and $363 in holiday pay.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.