Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Max Whitehead: Employment Expert on the Immigration NZ staff dismissed for derogatory messages about applicants

Transcript

Max Whitehead: Employment Expert on the Immigration NZ staff dismissed for derogatory messages about applicants · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Staff at Immigration New Zealand have been sacked or given
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: formal warnings for sending inappropriate messages about migrants their clients
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to each other. So sixteen staff members at several branches
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: were disciplined inappropriately talking about visa applicants on team chats.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: And you know team chats, it's a work software. We've
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: all used that. Employment expert Max Whitehead joins me now
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: to talk about this fell of Max.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Andrew. There's a shocker.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Is it a shocker? I mean hello, I mean everyone
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: is guilty about gossip being about our clients. These are
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: just clients that're talking about stuff they're helping. They're being collegial, Max.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, but one, you're using an employer's tool to make
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: this disrespectful and could easily bring the employer into disrepute
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: and has because obviously these people now are in the media.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I mean Andrew Dickinson's talking about them right now.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's true. So hod On, they made a very
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: important point because it's because it's on teams that makes
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: it worse.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: It doesn't make it worse. And look, even if they
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: made a comment on their own social media like Facebook
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: or or any one of those TikTok or anything like
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: that at all, that brings the employer into disrepute. So
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: if they said something like this is the worst employer
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: anybody could have, I'm suffering here, that will bring that
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: will bring on discipline, reaction, and it could even be dismissal.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: So the employer is required to have a policy before
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: they can enforce it. If it's not there's no policy,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: they should at least give the person a warning first offense,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: and then thereafter go after it. But employers need to
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: be aware that they also have to be careful of
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: free speech because people do have an entitlement to say
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: well what they like to some extent. But bringing someone
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: into disrepute that particularly your employer, the employer can be
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: reactive to it, and horrobably will.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Of course, my social media is full of me criticizing everybody.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: You know, so I'm in big trouble, I guess. But
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: people forget about reputational risk and reputational risks to companies
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and reputational risks to individuals and your own brand.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Correct and look more the higher ranking like look at you, you,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I'm in the highest ranking person in ZB. If you
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: made a comment, you would be in worse trouble than
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: perhaps someone lowly down down the line. If I was
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: just a normal employee who fronted up and did all
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: the leg work, that that would have a big, big
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: ramification for you. Now there's there's a couple of court
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: cases which are really interesting. One man had road rage
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: and actually ran over somebody, and that made headlines. And
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: of course, but everyone knew where this person worked. He
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: had a high profile, and so the employer dismissed him,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: even though I had nothing to do with the workplace,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: dismissed him for bringing into distribute. Another person on the
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: birthday cake put something like and I worked for the
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: worse bees in the world. You know, I can't say
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: the word, but certainly that person on social media and
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: thought it was funny and wow, gone finished.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: All right, Max, that's a very good warning. That is
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Max Whitehead here is an employment law specialist with white
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Head Consultants. And look here's something. Make some rules for
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: yourself if your employer, please make a rule for your
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: employees too, so you know, just in case they are
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: having a bit of a gossip, they realize that that's
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the wrong thing. Don't just come out of the blue,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and remember termination is terminal.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: to News Talks it Be from five am weekdays, or
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio