When the investigator is married to the accused, the bill tells the story
Three minutes after firing its head chef, a New Zealand café's general manager contacted his wife. She lost her job too. Total cost: over $95,000.
On February 12, 2026, the New Zealand Employment Relations Authority ruled that Tang & Son Limited had unjustifiably dismissed Aaron Wallace, head chef at Buoy Café, and his wife Phonesavanh "Ponsy" Wallace, the café's sous chef, from the Auckland waterfront café.
The trouble started when the company bought the café in June 2023 and appointed Sikuong Khammy as general manager and his wife, Sok Heang (Irrene) Toun, as store manager. Almost immediately, tensions developed between Mr Wallace and Ms Toun over who was responsible for what in the kitchen. Mr Wallace raised concerns repeatedly with Mr Khammy, describing what he saw as bullying — including Ms Toun refusing to speak to him for weeks at a time.
Things came to a head on June 14, 2024. Mr Wallace emailed Mr Khammy to say he would not be working that weekend, citing stress and anxiety over his dealings with Ms Toun and asking for an urgent meeting. Mr Khammy had just returned from a trip to Cambodia. Instead of scheduling that meeting, he spent the weekend speaking to seven staff members, including his wife, and on the evening of June 16, 2024, sent Mr Wallace a termination letter by email.
Three minutes later, he emailed Mrs Wallace asking her to come in for a meeting the following day. When she pressed him on the purpose, Mr Khammy replied: "I am letting you go and pay you your 2 week notice. I was going to tell you in person but here we are."
Mrs Wallace had not been warned, investigated, or given any chance to respond before the decision was made. Her formal dismissal letter, sent on June 20, 2024, accused her of colluding with her husband to cause trouble at work, a claim the Authority found had no reliable factual basis.
The Authority found the process used to dismiss Mrs Wallace was "not merely flawed; it was non-existent," concluding that she lost her job not because of anything she had done, but because of the views management had formed about her husband.
Mr Wallace's dismissal fared no better. The Authority found that Mr Khammy had, at best, conducted a one-sided investigation, speaking to seven staff members over the weekend, but crucially never putting the allegations to Mr Wallace himself or giving him any opportunity to respond. The bullying complaint Mr Wallace had raised was not sufficiently investigated either; the Authority found that something more was needed than simply preferring, without further inquiry, the account of a manager who was also Mr Khammy's wife.
The financial toll was significant. Mr Wallace received $40,000 in lost wages and $18,000 in distress compensation. Mrs Wallace was awarded $19,448 in lost wages and $18,000 in compensation, which was a combined total of $95,448, with legal costs still unresolved.
The case is a pointed reminder for anyone who manages people for a living. A fair dismissal process cannot be run by someone with a personal stake in its outcome. Employees who raise bullying concerns have the right to a genuine, independent inquiry, and not a termination for raising them. And letting go of an employee's spouse within minutes, with no separate process and no chance to respond, is not a defensible position.
Three minutes between two emails. The cost: $95,448 and counting.
