| Restrictions | OK |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Employment Relations Authority - Auckland |
| Reference No | AA 146/06 |
| Hearing date | 14 Dec 2005 |
| Determination date | 08 May 2006 |
| Member | V Campbell |
| Representation | G Lloyd ; P Kiely |
| Location | Auckland |
| Parties | Himona and Anor v Carter Holt Harvey Ltd |
| Other Parties | Paora |
| Summary | UNJUSTIFIED DISMISSAL – Serious misconduct – Applicants climbed onto moving conveyer belt in attempt to fix blockage – Engineer told applicants to get off – Blockage problems continued and applicants climbed onto belt again – Incident reported - Investigation resulted in dismissal – Respondent’s written policies prohibited standing on energized equipment and provided for dismissal as penalty in event of serious breaches of safety policies – Applicants aware of safety policies – Applicants’ actions extremely dangerous – Repeated behaviour after specific instruction to stop - Due consideration given by respondent to applicants’ explanation that climbing onto moving belt was common practice – Respondent fairly and reasonably entitled to view actions as serious misconduct warranting dismissal – Dismissals justified – Length of service 15 years (BH) and 27 years (WP) – Pulp mill operators |
| Result | Applications dismissed ; Costs reserved |
| Cases Cited | Man O’War Farm Limited v Bree [2003] 1 ERNZ 83;NZ (with exceptions) Food Processing etc IUOW v Unilever NZ [1990] 1 NZILR 35;W & H Newspapers v Oram [2000] 2 ERNZ 448 ; [2001] 3 NZLR 29 |
| Number of Pages | 8 |
| PDF File Link: | aa 146_06.pdf [pdf 33 KB] |