An employer’s right to discipline staff in breach of their employment agreement is now in question after a ruling from the Employment Relations Authority
In October 2020, Inland Revenue employee Renee Andrews viewed a client’s confidential information without authorisation and disclosed it to colleagues. She says it was because the client was someone famous and she was just being nosey.
Her manager Christopher Thomson viewed this as serious misconduct and she was issued with a final written warning.
Andrews raised a personal grievance claim and the Employment Relations Authority ruled that the written warning was unjustified. Inland Revenue was ordered to reverse the warning and pay her $20,000 in compensation.
This is a dangerous precedent to set – an employee can be rewarded for not doing their job properly while the employer is punished for trying to take disciplinary action.
Authority member Philip Cheyne says there was no proof that Andrews’ actions were inconsistent with how she normally worked.
It is concerning that this is the logic that was used, instead of considering whether her actions were consistent with her employment agreement, which they very clearly were not.
