The stain of being associated with child molestation has been partly mollified by the Employment Court decision compensating 13 Christchurch City Council creche workers.
The workers, all associates of jailed molester Peter Ellis, will share $1 million awarded against the council for procedural unfairness during the closure of its civic creche in 1992.
The decision by Judge Tom Goddard has the effect of drawing together threads of public disquiet and in a wider context should be seen as a cautionary benchmark for anyone contemplating hasty witch-hunts or sackings when there are no proofs of wickedness.
Notions of fair play being abandoned run true in the Christchurch case: the city council sprinted for cover to distance itself from its creche workers by putting them on the street. It was not just an error of judgment; it was a pre-emptory act of rank cowardice to fend off shrill and uninformed community clamour.
The dismissals constituted a rotten performance by the council and if left unpunished would have demonstrated to workers everywhere that some employers could put community concerns first, however unjustified and asinine they might be. It could also have confirmed what liberals have long suggested – that fair play in labour relations went out the door when they lost their tap root into government in the 1980s.
Christchurch City Council might not have been able to hose down the witch-burners or spike the ducking stool brigade, but it should have stood by its staff until the outcome of the inquiries were known. Instead, it opted to dump its creche staff and let them run the gauntlet unprotected. The effect was that creche workers found themselves vilified and at the mercy of a wave of bitterness. The council might just as well have erected stakes in the Square.
The Goddard judgment reveals considerable dismay about the council’s actions and indicates a high level of sympathy for the women at the centre of the case. Their agony is palpable and no amount of indignation or money will heal their wounds completely. The money will be at best a balm to soothe pains inflicted when the council went weak at the knees. The sorriest aspect of this matter is that despite substantial compensation, there is not one person involved who could be described as a winner: the creche case has victims and losers only.
The council has now got the message, but this unsavoury matter remains unfinished. Police activity about the creche case is to go to the Police Complaints Authority; there were renewed calls at the weekend for a public inquiry; and Ellis wants leave to appeal to the Privy Council.
The useful spin-off from the judgment is that it should hearten men and women who work in creches everywhere and reassert the idea of fair play and rules in industrial relations. The creche movement is an essential part of the return-to-work movement in New Zealand and those who work in them are generally honourable and decent. In Christchurch the city council’s next duty is to rebuild with its remaining workers the trust it squandered.
Lauda Finem: there were a few winners, for a time…. but we are about to fuck those cunts over……..the truths coming!
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