A Mount Maunganui Fish Factory has been ordered to pay more than $8500 for unjustifiably sacking an employee who called in sick following a boozy Boxing Day.

The Employment Relations Authority ruled Turei Peters was unjustifiably dismissed by Bay Packers Limited on December 28, 2012 after he text his supervisor a day earlier saying he was '2 crook to mke it in".

Bay Packers Limited on Tyne Street, Mount Maunganui.

The knife hand, employed by the company since December 2009, had been drinking on Boxing Day when he went to bed at 3am. He was due to start work at 5am but text his supervisor, Ray Beattie, the message.

He later explained to his boss, Steven Meredith, he was too drunk to make it in to work.

This was despite the company advising the 30 staff on November 2 that year that not turning up for work without reasonable excuse was a sackable offence. It was also warned employees that not attending work without being granted annual leave during the Christmas/New Year period could mean similar penalties.

Turei told the hearing that on Boxing Day morning there were some personal issues between him and his partner, which resulted in him drinking till 3am.

After texting his boss on December 27, Turei received no contact with the company until 7am the following day, when he was called in for a meeting and explained he was too drunk to attend work.

He then attended a disciplinary meeting with the general manager where, during an adjournment, he was assured by supervisor Cooney Williams he would only receive a warning. When the meeting resumed he was fired for serious misconduct.

'Mr Peters only explanation had been that he had become carried away by the festive season, and therefore it had been a personal choice to continue drinking knowing that he had work the next day,” said the general manager.

'The incident in itself was sufficient to justify ‘unauthorised absenteeism from work' - however this was not the first occasion in that Mr Peters had been too intoxicated to attend work, this being at the commencement of his shift on a previous Christmas period.”

ERA member Eleanor Robinson says although unauthorised absence from work was deemed serious misconduct, Bay Packers went about the incident the wrong way.

She says an employee with four years' clean service should have been given more of a chance to explain himself and his responsible actions while drunk should have been taken into account – opposed to attending work intoxicated.

Bay Packers was ordered to reimburse Peters the $8528 he would have earned while he was out of work for three months.

Any other order to award compensation on other grounds was refused as Turei had contributed "100 per cent" to his sacking.