Whistleblower loses bid for old job

Howick College. Photo / Doug Sherring

An Auckland teacher has lost his bid for reinstatement at Howick College.

Raymond Lewis was sacked in April 2008 after a 20-year stint at the school and claimed in an Employment Court hearing that he was fired after raising concerns about a raft of incidents at the school.

He believed he was targeted after complaining to Prime Minister John Key, among others, about a number of issues.

In April this year Mr Lewis won his claim for unjustified dismissal and was awarded $10,000 and three months backpay after Employment Court Chief Judge Graeme Colgan overturned a 2008 Employment Relations Authority ruling.

But Mr Lewis' bid for reinstatement was rejected after strong opposition by the college board of trustees.

Judge Colgan said there was a risk of further disruption that could affect teachers, the school and "potentially pupils".

He said Mr Lewis had played a part in losing his job by failing to take fair and reasonable steps, but it should have been dealt with more appropriately by the school, which had made a raft of errors and had been "unreasonable and unfair".

The economics teacher took his fight for reinstatement to the Court of Appeal, which has rejected his plea.

In a judgment this week, the Court of Appeal said it did not consider the decision on reinstatement was one of those rare cases where a person acting judicially and properly instructed could not have come to the decision Judge Colgan reached.

- NZPA