Wedding Fight Not Cause For Firing

by Tom Miller

Have you ever been to a wedding that got legitimately out-of-hand? Not just “oh, the groom just puked on himself” or “hey, the bride fell down.” We mean punches, groping, and a wedding night spent in jail. Well we haven’t. It sounds so exciting but would probably be a serious buzzkill when everyone realizes what just happened with major league repercussions in the light of day.

According to Stuff, just such a fiasco at the reception went down in New Zealand a few months ago. This time around, a woman was canned by her boss on the night of his wedding because of a brawl that he insisted she instigated. It turns out that the company (a renter of suits) was run by a man and his fiancée. Their employees were invited to the show and one (the soon-to-be-unemployed Doreen Lelieveld) of them expressed reservations about the wedding. This was long after the time to “speak now or forever hold your peace.” Throw in a little booze and Kiwi spirit and you can see where this would go.

The doubts, or some telephone-version of them, enraged the fiancée’s son to the point that accosting his future stepfather (Dessie Cox) seemed like a reasonable idea. The genesis of the assault quickly made its way to Dessie Cox’s ear(s) and he immediately fired Doreen Lelieveld in a profanity-laced conversation.

It turns out that you can’t pull that kind of knee-jerk sh*t-canning in New Zealand. Or so ruled the Employment Relations Authority. The Cox family now owes Doreen Lelieveld $11,000 ($7,333 in American money) in missed salary and pain and suffering. Many of the witnesses have come down with amnesia of the actual events (”hey, how the hell did I get home? And who took my pants off?”)

Would this have played in the US of A? Most private companies are employment-at-will, meaning that they can let people go for any or no reason with the safety net of unemployment insurance in any case of a not for-cause termination. It looks like that is not the case in Wellington. Around these parts the marrying couple would have sued a guest for ruining their big day. On this side of the Pacific, we sue the caterer, the planner, the photographer, the flower girl, and anyone else involved if the wedding doesn’t go exactly as planned. So alike, but so different. And they almost speak the same language we do.

For the record, the wife’s name is now Rosie Cox. Do with that what you will.