She resigned and lost that claim, but the airport retailer still had to pay up
Airport retailer LS Travel must pay a worker denied her guaranteed hours, Employment Relations Authority member Sarah Blick ruled on 12 June 2026.
The worker joined LS Travel Retail New Zealand Limited as a fixed-term, full-time team member in its Relay stores at Auckland Airport, starting on 27 November 2023. Her individual employment agreement guaranteed 40 hours a week at $24.50 an hour, with her times and days of work set at Tuesday to Saturday, 12.30pm to 8.30pm.
Days before she started, the airport landlord directed a Relay store to move to 24/7 operations, which became permanent in late November 2023. Managers told her the stores now needed cover across early mornings and late nights, and she was rostered onto shifts starting as early as 3.45am, well outside the afternoon and evening window she had agreed to.
She raised her concerns repeatedly. LS Travel offered her a part-time agreement of 16 guaranteed hours instead, which she declined, saying her availability had not changed. In March 2024 the company opened a consultation to permanently shift her roster, then gave two weeks' notice of the change, effective 8 April 2024. Her last shift was on 6 April 2024.
The worker raised a personal grievance for unjustified disadvantage on 1 May 2024. Mediation failed, and after LS Travel wrote proposing she return under an interim arrangement, she gave notice of resignation on 20 June 2024. Her employment ended in July.
The dispute came down to how the agreement's hours clauses fit together. Because LS Travel had drafted the agreement and its terms were ambiguous, Blick interpreted them in the worker's favour, finding the times and days of work marked when her guaranteed hours would be provided. The company argued flexibility was always required in the airport environment, but Blick found the expected flexibility "was not sufficiently or clearly reflected in the terms in the IEA".
Blick also found LS Travel could not stand behind the contract reading it had built its defence on, saying it was not shown to have held that interpretation until late in the relationship. The Authority found casual and part-time staff had picked up afternoon shifts within her agreed hours, and that undisclosed performance and attendance concerns had been passed to managers in another store, which cost her a possible transfer. "LS Travel has not been able to show its actions were justified", the determination said. The worker had established personal grievances for unjustified disadvantage.
On the resignation itself, Blick reached a different conclusion. The agreement let LS Travel change the worker's hours on two weeks' notice after consultation, and the company had taken that step. The Authority considered her resignation premature, finding she could have explored interim arrangements before leaving. She was not constructively dismissed.
Her penalty claim for breaches of good faith was ruled out of time and, in any event, declined. Blick ordered LS Travel Retail New Zealand Limited to pay the worker $8,000 for humiliation and injury to feelings, along with lost wages and 8 percent holiday pay covering the guaranteed hours she was not rostered, all within 21 days. Costs were reserved.
