Au pair wrecks Queenstown family's holiday | Otago Daily Times ...

Hamish and Janine Learmonth with daughter Saskia in 2007. Photo: ODT files

A Queenstown family have won a battle to prove that their Swedish au pair's claims of being "dumped" at an airport in Samoa with $20 for "wrecking their holiday" did not stack up.

Amanda Akeson went to the Employment Relations Authority last year, claiming she had been left at Samoa's airport by Janine and Hamish Learmonth to "fend for herself" with only $20.

The Learmonths claimed the nanny refused to work once they arrived at their Pacific resort, when she should have been looking after their children.

The ERA ruled in her favour and ordered her employers, Janine and Hamish Learmonth, to pay her $1189.99 in unpaid wages and holiday pay.

But the Learmonths challenged the decision as they had not had a chance to properly argue their case - and yesterday the ERA reversed its decision. However, the au pair returned to Sweden while the appeal was being heard.

ERA member James Crichton said it had made an error, "which it regretted", by issuing its finding before the Learmonths had filed all their submissions.

The ERA found Mrs Learmonth had taken Ms Akeson to the airport in Samoa, arranged her flight home, stayed with her for up to an hour and left her with $90.

"The authority must again vacate its original conclusion ... and substitute it with a fresh conclusion that, whatever happened when Ms Akeson commenced to leave Samoa for New Zealand, no criticism can be levelled at the Learmonths, based on the evidence now before the authority," the decision said.

Mrs Learmonth said she was "over the moon" with the result.

- Sharon Lundy

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Source: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-lakes/198790/au-pair-wrecks-queenstown-familys-holiday

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