Guard loses bid to appeal firing

A Rimutaka prison guard has been denied the chance to challenge a determination of the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) after he was fired for serious misconduct after assaulting a prisoner in a "strip search room".

A prisoner alleged that in July 2006, senior corrections officer Aaron Waitai and corrections officer David Kennedy assaulted him while another officer Motusaga Ese watched the door.

The Corrections Department investigated over 18 months and found all three were guilty of serious misconduct. They were dismissed on December 21, 2007.

It was claimed that a series of letters, emails and phone calls between the Corrections Department and representatives of the guards which followed amounted to the guards' grievances over the incident being raised within the 90-day limit - which is required by law.

The ERA found that grievances had been formally raised but the Department of Corrections challenged this.

The Employment Court has overturned the ERA's ruling and in its decision said any communications had "proceeded on the mistaken basis that the grievances had already been formally raised".

There were no "exceptional circumstances" to warrant raising grievances out of time, the court ruled in regards to Mr Waitai.

The Correction Department's challenges against Mr Kennedy and Mr Ese were adjourned because the court had not received any recent instructions from them.

- NZPA