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Dismissal justified for intimidating employer
An email attack on his employer cost a Northland man his $30,000 redundancy payment, the Employment Court recently heard.
Northland Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd decided to close its Dargaville plant. It gave all employees notice of termination for redundancy.
All but four employees were members of the Dairy Workers Union and were covered by a collective employment contract, which provided for generous redundancy compensation. The other four employees were members of the Engineers Union, and had no entitlement to redundancy compensation.
The Engineers Union, supported by the Dairy Workers Union, initiated a campaign to try and persuade the company to pay redundancy compensation to its four members.
Employee and Dairy Workers Union delegate, Ronald Game, participated in this campaign. He obtained an email address for the company's Dargaville site, which the Engineers Union then used to bombard the company with emails and faxes. This blocked the company's fax and email system for 4 hours.
The Engineers Union also organised a more public campaign. It had pamphlets printed, which it, and other Unions, handed out to supermarket customers urging them to boycott the company's products because, according to the pamphlet, the company was "not a fair employer." Mr Game assisted to hand out the pamphlets. The four Engineers Union members who were the subject of the protest were noticeably absent from these activities.
The company investigated Mr Game's activities as serious misconduct. At a disciplinary meeting, Mr Game denied faxing the email list to the Engineers Union but otherwise answered "no comment". He admitted handing out pamphlets at the supermarket but asserted that it was his right to protest on his day off. He also claimed that even though he was an employee of the company, he was entitled to protest in a way that could financially damage it.
The company summarily dismissed Mr Game for serious misconduct. As a result, he did not receive the $30,000 redundancy payment he would have received had he remained working until he was made redundant.
Mr Game brought a personal grievance claim against the company, which the Employment Tribunal dismissed. Mr Game then appealed to the Employment Court.
The Employment Court also dismissed his personal grievance.
The actions of Mr Game in setting out to economically damage the company, albeit in support of union solidarity, were such that a reasonable and fair employer could regard them as having fatally undermined the trust and confidence which it could continue to repose in the employee. The contention that Mr Game was merely carrying out his duties as a union delegate and exercising his right to protest may explain his motivation, but it does not excuse actions that constituted serious breaches of the duties he owed to the company, Judge Barry Travis said.
Judge Travis ordered Mr Game to pay $2000 costs to the company.
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