KEY POINTS:
Just a few weeks ago Shawn Tan was a left-leaning Green Party supporter. Now he is the tenth-ranked candidate on Act's party list.
It is a philosophical flip-flop that has seen him suspended from his job, fuelled a political row, and left lawyers scratching their heads over human rights versus employment rules.
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union suspended Mr Tan after finding out he was on Act's party list released this week.
Mr Tan, who until recently was a left-leaning Green Party supporter, said the union - which often has workers standing for Labour - was "hypocritical" and his suspension "clearly politically motivated".
But the union says Mr Tan's political shift puts him in direct contrast with the its core beliefs.
Employment lawyers the Weekend Herald spoke to said the union might have some grounds for the suspension because of its "surprise" characteristics and the way it was in direct conflict with its goals. However, a dismissal would be much more difficult as the Human Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on political beliefs, with few exceptions.
Act leader Rodney Hide said the EPMU's move showed it was being controlled "from the ninth floor of the Beehive", given it was all right for union secretary Andrew Little to be courted as a Labour candidate by Prime Minister Helen Clark. "This might shock the EPMU, but we think people do have rights," he said.
Mr Hide said he would have no problem if an Act staffer told him they were standing for Labour.
Mr Little said Mr Tan, who works as an organiser at the union's call centre, had been suspended for failing to get its approval to stand as a candidate. He said the union needed to decide whether it was going to give Mr Tan time off from his job to campaign for ideas it disagreed with.
Mr Tan, an immigrant from Singapore, said his main motivation for entering politics was to give Asians in New Zealand a voice "beyond just Pansy Wong and Ashraf Choudhary".
Mr Tan will have a meeting with the union on Monday.
- NZPA
