KEY POINTS:
Two former Temuka police officers who claimed they were forced to quit the force because of workplace tensions will not have their grievance cases heard until next year.
Bruce Ramsay and Christine Coy were unhappy with how they were treated by their former employer more than five years ago.
Their cases were initially set down to be heard by the Employment Court in November.
According to the two former long-serving constables, workplace tensions at the Temuka police station were so bad they prompted them to quit, resulting in launching grievances with the Employment Relations Authority.
The claims were deemed so serious by the authority it agreed to bypass its own investigation and move the cases directly to the Employment Court.
Mr Ramsay said he quit the force in 2003, after working as a police officer for 25 years, the last 16 as a constable at Temuka, in South Canterbury.
He left because of a combination of how complaints by him against a supervisor were dealt with, and a sexual harassment complaint that was made against him to the Police Complaints Authority.
Constable Christine Coy, who worked at Temuka station for nine-and-a-half years, said she left because she was subjected to a "campaign by her supervisor of intimidation, harassment, humiliation and abusive behaviour, which had the effect of undermining her position and disadvantaged her".
Her employers had failed to deal with issues raised by her in an appropriate or adequate manner.
Both Mr Ramsay and Ms Coy terminated their employment in circumstances they say amounted to constructive dismissal.
Last year when Employment Authority member Helen Doyle referred the complaints to the Employment Court, she said each case on its own would not merit a move directly to the Employment Court, but the cases together were appropriate for the court to investigate.
"There is, in my view, public interest in how such allegations were dealt with in the context of a small rural police station and the police general instructions."
No new dates for the hearings had been set, but an Employment Court spokeswoman said it was likely to be March or April before the court had hearing time available.
- NZPA
