Oranga Tamariki worker who lost job in vaccine mandate dispute awarded $5000

Libby Wilson/Stuff

The Employment Relations Authority has ruled that Oranga Tamariki’s poor communication with employee Andrew Fale caused him “distress”.

An Oranga Tamariki worker who was dismissed after refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19 has been awarded $5000 to compensate for his “hurt feelings”.

Andrew Fale was employed by the Ministry for Children as a youth worker in South Auckland when the Government introduced mandatory vaccination for everyone who had contact with children and students in schools.

However, Fale was dismissed after saying he wasn’t going to declare his vaccination status because he didn’t agree that his role was covered by the new mandate.

Fale took Oranga Tamariki to the Employment Relations Authority claiming that “his dismissal was procedurally and substantively unjustified”.

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Now, the authority has ruled that while Fale’s unjustified dismissal grievance claim was unsubstantiated, there is evidence that he was “unjustifiably disadvantaged in his employment”.

According to a decision released on Tuesday, the Authority found that an “absence of communication” on behalf of Oranga Tamariki “caused [Fale’s] perception that he was being treated unfairly”.

The Government introduced the new vaccination policy for those working in schools on October 11, 2021, giving those affected until January 1, 2022 to get vaccinated.

Oranga Tamariki’s consultation process with staff about the vaccination order began eight days after the policy was announced.

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Since Fale was on sick leave between late October and early November, he claimed he didn’t receive his employer’s attempts to contact him via phone or email to discuss the vaccination order.

On November 12, Fale’s team leader tried contacting him on his personal email. Fale received, and replied to, this message.

He was told that the new vaccination mandate applied to him, and if he had not received his first dose of the vaccine by November 15 he would be unable to continue on with his normal duties.

However, the authority found that since contact wasn’t made with Fale until the evening of November 12, he had less than three days to “consider the situation” before the policy was due to come into effect.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

Andrew Fale had been working at the Korowai Manaaki residential unit in South Auckland at the time of his dismissal. (File photo)

“Oranga Tamariki should have known that Mr Fale did not have access to his work emails when he was not at work,” the authority said.

“The communication deficiencies caused him to form an adverse impression about the way he was being treated by Oranga Tamariki, which caused him stress.”

The authority also found that Fale hadn’t been kept informed about suitable redeployment options.

“Mr False suffered hurt feelings as a result of Oranga Tamariki’s poor communication with him, so he is awarded distress compensation to reflect that.

“Oranga Tamariki is ordered to pay Mr Fale $5000 to compensate him for the humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings he suffered,” the authority ruled.

Fale had been working at the Korowai Manaaki Youth Justice North Unit in South Auckland at the time of his dismissal.

He was responsible for ensuring the Korowai Manaaki residential unit was a safe and secure environment for young people living there.

Fale also supported young offenders with their rehabilitation.

According to former employment relations lawyer Ashley Sharp, New Zealanders can expect to see more Covid-19 related employment disputes “going through the system in the coming months”.

“From what I’ve seen, a lot of potential claims involve examples where employers didn’t read the fine print.

“There were often diversions in the way in which Covid regulations were drafted, and the way they were then implemented,” Sharp said.

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