Sixty hours a week yet still legally casual, and that was just the start
A security guard who worked up to 60 hours weekly was still legally casual, member Sarah Kennedy-Martin ruled on 7 April 2026.
Shelani Devi started as a security guard with Allied Investments Limited, trading as Allied Security, on 12 October 2023, signing a casual individual employment agreement, in a case reported as Devi v Allied Investments Limited t/a Allied Security [2026] NZERA 208. By late 2023 she was working six days a week across Countdown supermarkets in the Wellington region, and from early 2024 she says her shifts settled into regular patterns at the same sites, running around 50 to 60 hours a week.
Devi argued that pattern had quietly turned her job permanent, so cutting off her shifts amounted to an unjustified dismissal. She pointed to a conversation in which she asked a manager about permanent shifts. According to her evidence, the manager said "yes, we will do something for you" or words to that effect.
The Authority looked past the label to the real nature of the relationship. The agreement's clause 4.0 read: "The Employee will be offered work as and when required, with no fixed or guaranteed hours on any day." Devi could accept or decline any shift, mostly picking her own through an app called Deputy, and Allied Security argued her hours varied week to week with no guarantee on either side. Kennedy-Martin agreed the work carried the hallmarks of casual employment and found the relationship had stayed casual throughout.
Things unravelled after a four-hour shift was cancelled over a fuel dispute on 2 April 2024, when Devi says she was already on the road. Frustrated, she sent her manager harsh text messages, swearing and using derogatory names, including one that could be interpreted as a racist slur, though she denies that was her intention. Devi accepts sending the messages was wrong and says she deeply regrets it.
She was called to an investigation meeting later that month. Devi says another manager came in, shouted at her and called her racist, and that she became so nervous she said she would look to resign. It was a spur-of-the-moment reaction, she says, because she felt attacked and unheard, and she wanted to speak to HR first. She handed back one jacket but kept the rest of her uniform, did not write a resignation letter and never named a final day. Allied Security says she resigned in the meeting, which ended early.
Over the following weeks Devi emailed Regional Manager Travis Austin asking whether she still had a job; on 13 May he replied "no shifts at the moment". A grievance was raised on her behalf on 27 May 2024.
On the disputed resignation, Kennedy-Martin found the ambiguity worked against Devi: "While resignation may not have been intended the word resignation was used." That, with the returned uniform, gave Allied Security a basis to believe it need not finish its process. The member also could not conclude Devi's access to the Deputy app had been removed, and noted her own emails never said so.
Because the relationship remained casual, the Authority held Devi could have no expectation of ongoing work and so was not dismissed. It found she was not disadvantaged by the supermarket stand-down, the investigation or the loss of app access. Her personal grievance claims failed, no remedies were considered, and costs were reserved for the parties to resolve between themselves.
