On the drive home from Hawke\u2019s Bay, he unbuckled himself from the passenger seat while the vehicle was moving and again attempted to urinate out the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vehicle required professional cleaning as a result of [his] conduct,\u201d the company owner said.<\/p>\n
The employee disputed some of the company\u2019s evidence but did admit he became intoxicated and behaved inappropriately.<\/p>\n
The employee was dismissed after his conduct in Hawke’s Bay. Photo \/ 123RF<\/p>\n
He said his alcohol consumption was during travel to and from the training course, outside working hours, and during unpaid time.<\/p>\n
He was suspended on September 30, 2025.<\/p>\n
A disciplinary investigation into his conduct found there was a clear breach of the company\u2019s code of conduct, the vehicle use policy and the Land Transport (Road User) Rule 2004.<\/p>\n
It also found the man represented a serious failure to act safely, respectfully, and responsibly, which meant the company was unable to maintain trust and confidence in his ability to meet the standards expected.<\/p>\n
He was summarily dismissed for serious misconduct by letter dated October 21, 2025.<\/p>\n
The company told the authority the employee had largely accepted the finding of serious misconduct. <\/p>\n
However, the employee said his dismissal was predetermined and that the company failed to adequately consider rehabilitation, as an alternative to dismissal.<\/p>\n
Authority denies reinstatement<\/p>\n
In his recently released decision, Lynch said the employee\u2019s claim met the low threshold of an arguable case for personal grievance for unjustified dismissal, which would be investigated by the authority later. <\/p>\n
For now, the employee wanted to be reinstated on an interim basis. <\/p>\n
The company said if he was reinstated, he would be in a safety-critical environment, notwithstanding the unresolved concerns over judgment and reliability.<\/p>\n
It said those concerns gave rise to a risk that could not be adequately managed on an interim basis in a safety-critical environment.<\/p>\n
Lynch said the employee was not dismissed because of his alcohol problem \u2013 he lost his job after the company found there were serious issues with his behaviour while intoxicated.<\/p>\n
The employee had since gone to an alcohol treatment provider.<\/p>\n
Lynch said the employee had made \u201csignificant steps\u201d in acknowledging and dealing with his alcohol problem and he should be \u201ccommended\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, there is no evidence before the authority at this interim stage to suggest that there is no longer any basis for [the company\u2019s] safety-related concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather, the information provided by the treatment provider appears to suggest that [the employee\u2019s] issues with alcohol are not historic issues that are fully resolved, but ones that [the employee] is still working through.\u201d<\/p>\n
The employee\u2019s application for interim reinstatement was declined.<\/p>\n
However, the employee was entitled to have his substantive claims investigated and determined at a later date.<\/p>\n
Brianna McIlraith is a Queenstown-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the lower South Island. She has been a journalist since 2018 and has had a strong interest in business and financial journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authority member Jeremy Lynch held an interim investigation in which he ruled it that it would be inappropriate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,95,138,31046,9948,6130,71,3112,11517,2686,111,139,69,61,28355,253461,6845,4576],"class_list":["post-508930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-and","tag-business","tag-drunk","tag-employee","tag-failing","tag-from","tag-job","tag-loses","tag-moving","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-to","tag-trying","tag-urinate","tag-vehicle","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}