A former Aldi employee who physically intervened in a heated confrontation between customers has failed in his bid to be reinstated, after a workplace tribunal found he deliberately ignored company policy to walk away from dangerous situations.
Tamati Hohaia was dismissed in October last year for serious misconduct following an incident the previous month, which was captured on CCTV. The drama unfolded when Mr Hohaia attempted to mediate a dispute between a male and female customer at a Sydney store.
In a Facebook video explaining his actions, Mr Hohaia — who uses the handle Maori Einstein and has nearly 100,000 followers — said he had been serving the woman when the situation escalated. “I was talking to her… she was very short with me. I thought she was being a little rude… but sometimes people are just having a bad day so I just carried on,” he said.
After she left the checkout, Mr Hohaia said he heard her telling someone to leave her alone and turned to see a man with his hand on her bag. “I immediately get up from behind my register… and said, excuse me sir, you need to stop,” he recounted. “He says ‘don’t hit me mate’. I respond ‘I’m not going to hit you… you’re being an unreasonable customer, you need to leave’.”
Mr Hohaia said the man walked away and then returned and tried to headbutt him, sparking a physical struggle. “He starts to tackle me… I’m underneath him on the ground applying a technique on him just to chill him out a bit.” Despite colleagues telling him to stop, Mr Hohaia felt it was unsafe to disengage because the man was strong and had been threatening the woman.
He said he forced the man towards the exit, explaining his main priority was to get the customer out and lock the doors. Mr Hohaia admitted he then followed the man outside and continued to push him away before returning and locking the store. He also claimed he began recording the man for “evidence”.
“The woman was distressed… I truly thought it was the right thing to do,” he said. “I will not let any man overpower a woman in my presence. I’m a father with five daughters and wife, I grew up with my mother and sister. What would youse do if you were in that position?”
Mr Hohaia argued he had been acting in self-defence and to protect another person, insisting his dismissal was harsh and unjust. He pointed to his “clean employment record for almost four years” and claimed Aldi failed to consider less severe disciplinary action. He also told the Fair Work Commission he had suffered financial hardship since losing his job.
However, Aldi hit back, arguing staff are explicitly told to walk away from volatile situations rather than intervene, under its strict Customer Service Guideline. The company told the tribunal employees must remove themselves immediately and alert a manager trained to handle such incidents — a directive Mr Hohaia was found to have ignored. The policy explicitly warns employees: “DO NOT stand in their way, argue with them, take photos, or put yourself in danger.”
The Commission was told Mr Hohaia had been repeatedly trained on the rules and had been walked through updated guidance as recently as June 2025. He accepted in cross-examination he saw the poster regularly, as it was displayed on the back of the door leading from the staff room to the shop floor.
Commissioner Jessica Rogers found that even if parts of Mr Hohaia’s claim that he was acting in self-defence were accepted, CCTV showed clear moments where he chose to keep fighting rather than walk away. “The failure to comply with Aldi’s policies and procedures led to the situation escalating to a point where Mr Hohaia became the aggressor,” she said in her published decision.
She ruled there was a valid reason for the sacking, noting Mr Hohaia was aware of the retailer’s strict rules but ignored them and continued the physical confrontation. Commissioner Rogers also found his actions created a serious safety risk to himself, the other man and nearby colleagues, ultimately classifying the conduct as serious misconduct.
