LTNZ to pay staffer $5000 over alleged spat warning

Land Transport NZ has been ordered by the Employment Relations Authority to pay a staff member $5000 for wrongfully issuing her with a final warning over an alleged spat in a restaurant.

Emily Gray was employed at the Land Transport Registry Centre in Palmerston North, which holds personal information about licensed drivers.

In February last year, Land Transport NZ received a complaint from a man who said Ms Gray threatened him and his wife in a restaurant, saying she knew he had a driving record.

He complained she "broadcast" to the restaurant 'I have done some investigating, I work for Land Transport and I know your husband very well'.

In a meeting with her employer, Ms Gray initially said she could not remember whether she had been at the restaurant as it had been "a big night".

She later confirmed she had been at the restaurant and spoken to the complainant's wife.

Land Transport told her she had implied she had accessed information other than for legitimate reasons, which amounted to serious misconduct, and it was considering sacking her.

Ms Gray admitted she knew the complainant's wife.

"She was my ex-husband's ex-girlfriend. We weren't what I could call the best of friends."

However, she continued to deny the allegations but was issued with a final warning for a period of a year.

She told the authority she was "surprised and shocked" at the allegations made against her.

"I knew I had not said anything like I was accused of saying."

Land Transport said it had found no evidence of Ms Gray accessing the complainant's file.

Authority member Denis Asher said such accessing could have been traced.

He acknowledged that Ms Gray's explanation was not "constant and compelling", but rather "inconsistent, vague, and unconvincing".

However, Land Transport took at face value the initial complaint and did not inquire into the long-standing and strained relationship between the two parties and inquire about a motive.

"... it would have been proper, rational, fair and reasonable to have done so," Mr Asher said.

He found that Ms Gray's warning was unjustified and ordered Land Transport to pay the $5000 she claimed as compensation for the hurt she suffered.

- NZPA