Latest / Best of Business / Max Whitehead: Employment law expert on the investigations into Xero's former chief executive Sir Rod Drury

Transcript

Max Whitehead: Employment law expert on the investigations into Xero's former chief executive Sir Rod Drury · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: New Zealander of the Year Sir Rod Drury has been
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: accused of inappropriate behavior by a former Zero staffer. The
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: woman made a complaint to Zero right before she left
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: the company in twenty seventeen. Zero was now reviewing how
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: they handled that, and Sir Rod says he's not done
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: anything wrong. Max Whitehead is an employment law expert at
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: the Whitehead Group and with us Home ax Hi Healer.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Can we read anything into the review that's just been
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: announced or is that just prudent reputation management by Zero?
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Well, it's a mystery why Zero are taking any action
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: because an employment law, what can they do? Like there's
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: ninety day limit on taking a personal grievance, so that's
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: not an option for the complainant. The other thing is
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: that maybe maybe the Human Rights Commission, but there's a
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: twelve month limit on that. Now this has gone These
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: allegations go back ten years, so it really doesn't make
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: a lot of sense except is it reputational issues that
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: perhaps Zero's spending a fortune maybe thirty eighty thousand dollars
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: on doing an investigation on this.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, presumably to clear their name, and so they handled
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: it properly. I would have thought, given that both of
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: them have left zero, as in Sir Rod and also
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: the woman who's made these allegations, even if the review
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: did find something, Zero couldn't do anything to either of them,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: could it.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: No? No, no, there's no action they could do to
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: You're right about either of them. I mean, she potentially
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: faces the you know, she's raised a claim that has
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: no substance to it. She could be disciplined if she
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: was an employee, but my goodness, I mean she left
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: many many many years ago and waited till she left
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: until she did raise the claim, and I think a
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: couple of years had passed now.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: The allegation is that he invited her. She's a junior staffer,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: he's the CEO. He invites her to her dinner at
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: his house across the road, just it seems to be
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: just a pair of them. Afterwards, as he's letting her
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: out the door, he says he wants to kiss her,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: she says no. He then doesn't kiss her. Is that
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: a slam dunk bad move from him? How much trouble
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: is he in for that?
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Well, a CEO should should behave himself a lot better
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: than that. That's not the sort of conduct you would
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: expect from a CEO. But I mean, you would think
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: that she's said no to a CEO and he's agreed
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: with her it was inappropriate. I would have thought that
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: would have should have been the end of the matter,
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: but it's not, and she still wants to raise the matter.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: And it seems like when Sue Rodd's reputation is that
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: it's peak. I thought it was years ago, but certainly
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: it's even got higher now being the new Zealander of
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: the year. That I mean she wants, well, I don't
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: know what she wants because I don't see them to
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: gain from her other than sitting in the sunlight with
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: the media attention that she's getting.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Max good to talk to you always is thank you
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: for your time, Max Whitehead employment LUI expert at the
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: white Head.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: For more from Newstalk set B listen live on air
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio