KEY POINTS:
A Navy doctor has been awarded $101,000 by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) for a sacking it deemed "callous, hasty and rash".
The Defence Force dismissed Fiona Ross-Taylor in December 2007, after nearly 12 years at the Navy Hospital in Devonport, Auckland.
She was fired after raising concerns over being rostered to do work she was unqualified for.
ERA member Leon Robinson awarded her $20,000 compensation for "emotional trauma and distress suffered" as a result of her dismissal.
He ordered the Chief of Defence Force to pay Dr Ross-Taylor $81,072.19 in compensation for lost income.
Mr Robinson was unimpressed by the actions of the hospital, which maintained Dr Ross-Taylor was a contractor, not an employee, and had contributed to her own demise.
Her long service and good work at the hospital had come to an end in "an entirely avoidable and unnecessary way", Mr Robinson said.
"The ending of this extended relationship was callous, hasty and rash."
In November 2007, Dr Ross-Taylor told hospital general manager Jeanette Cahill she was unhappy being rostered for duty in the hyperbaric unit, which treats divers with the bends.
She had no formal post-graduate qualification and should work there only under the formal oversight of a trained hyperbaric specialist, she said.
She based her view on Medical Council advice to her, saying it was unethical for her to do the work, and it would jeopardise her medical protection insurance.
Dr Ross-Taylor told Ms Cahill "for those reasons, I hereby withdraw from hyperbaric call, with immediate effect".
Ms Cahill responded that under her contract, Dr Ross-Taylor could vary her services only by mutual agreement and "I do not agree to this variation".
Dr Ross-Taylor became distressed and unable to work. Ms Cahill terminated her contract two weeks later.
The Defence Force argued that Dr Ross-Taylor was not an employee, as she worked under an independent contractor agreement (ICA).
But Mr Robinson said while Dr Ross-Taylor did work under an ICA, in practice she performed set hours on hospital-prepared rosters. Her meal breaks were rostered by the hospital, and her tools, material, equipment and patients all supplied by it.
She was under the "very significant and very real control" of the Defence Force, he said. "I conclude such control was characteristic and typical of an employment."
He rejected Defence Force submissions that Dr Ross-Taylor contributed to her personal grievance by refusing to disclose and misrepresenting her Medical Council advice.
- NZPA
