Press release: National Distribution Union

Sunday, April 15, 2007 9:30am

$40,000 payout for worker who defended himself in fight

A former Kaitaia mill worker is today celebrating a whopping $40,000 payout for unjustifiable dismissal, says the National Distribution Union.

National Distribution Union lawyer David Fleming says the Employment Court payout awarded last week is one of the highest awarded for a blue-collar worker. In the first six months of 2006, the Employment Court and Employment Authority only awarded three cases over $15,000 with a median pay out of $6,000.

But Anthony “Podge” Housham, 55, who was dismissed from his Kaitaia mill job last April is just happy to clear his name. “I’ve been given my mana back,” he says.

“If I hadn’t been in the union, I would never have gotten this result,” says the former union site delegate, who has been a union member for over 38 years. “If I was just an ordinary bloke at Juken and not in the union, there is no way I could have gone to court and won this sort of thing. If you don’t join the union and stand up with your fellow worker, you can’t fight injustice.”

Podge said that he had found it difficult to find a new job and was distraught at being removed from helping his fellow workmates as the senior site delegate.

“I’m also heavily involved in the local community through the Maori Anglican Church, Runanga, 28th Moari Battalion Association and the Kaitaia hospital committee and feel that my reputation in the community has been damaged.”

Podge says that he felt Juken had tried to find a loophole to remove him as the most active union member on site, but has decided not to return to the Northland mill, happy that he is leaving the union in good hands.

NDU lawyer Mr Fleming says that Juken New Zealand dismissed Podge for “engaging in acts of physical violence” against the company’s code of conduct.

“The Employment Court agreed that Podge had simply defended himself and found that no reasonable employer would have dismissed him, overturning an earlier decision by the Employment Authority.”

Podge was awarded $20,000 for injury to feelings and approximately $20,000 reimbursement for almost nine months of lost wages.

He is celebrating the win with his new workmates at Opua dismantling the former Navy frigate Canterbury to be sunk as an artifical diving reef in the Bay of Islands.

ENDS

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