Guy Hallwright job decision: his future undecided
Update 12pm: Guy Hallwright hasn’t decided whether he will appeal the ERA’s decision against his reinstatement at Forsyth Barr.
He found out yesterday he would not get his job back as a senior analyst at the firm.
The ERA decided Forsyth Barr was justified in dismissing Hallwright from the firm last year after he was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard following a motoring incident in 2010.
The incident left a man with two broken legs after Hallwright hit him with his car
ERA member Rosemary Monaghan decided the firm’s conclusion the conviction compromised Hallwright’s ability to carry out the job was one a fair and reasonable employer could have reached.
Hallwright told NBR ONLINE today he disagreed with the decision.
But says he does not know whether he wanted to fight it further, by appealing to the Employment Court.
He wants to review Ms Monaghan's determination in detail with his lawyer, Kathryn Beck, first.
Tuesday 5:50pm Convicted road-rager Guy Hallwright has lost his fight to get his job back as a senior analyst at Forsyth Barr.
Hallwright, dismissed following a highly-publicised criminal conviction, wanted his job back or $600,000 in lost earnings.
Employment Relations Authority (ERA) member Rosemary Monaghan has found Forsyth Barr did not wrongfully dismiss Hallwright after he was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard on June 29 2012 and sentenced to 250 hours’ community work.
The conviction relates to a motoring incident in September 2010, which left Korean man Sung Hin Kim with two broken legs after Hallwright hit him with his car.
Although it did not occur in the course of Hallwright’s employment, the incident and trial received significant media attention which Forsyth Barr successfuly argued brought the firm into disrepute.
Hallwright carried on working for Forsyth Barr immediately after the incident, because Forsyth Barr managing director Neil Paviour-Smith agreed to postpone a decision on Hallwright’s ongoing employment with the firm until his sentencing on August 30.
In defending the firm's decision to dismiss Hallwright, Forsyth Barr managing director Neil Paviour Smith said Hallwright's name and that of Forsyth Barr had been inextricably linked.
Although he believed Hallwright’s technical ability to undertake financial analysis or transactions with institutional clients was not compromised by the conviction, his media profile and participation in public presentations and report-writing on behalf of the firm was.
Hallwright argued the incident was not work related and did not affect his duties analysing listed companies. Read Hallwright’s argument to the ERA and complaint about the way Forsyth Barr delivered the news of his dismissal here.
Ms Monaghan had to weigh up whether Forsyth Barr’s decision to dismiss Hallwright was what a fair and reasonable employer could have done in all the circumstances at the time the dismissal occurred.
Forsyth Barr acknowledged to the ERA it could not prove an actual loss of business following Hallwright's trial and conviction, but she accepted the firm’s evidence of almost constant linking in the media of Hallwright and Forsyth Barr as his employer.
Ms Monaghan found Mr Paviour-Smith’s conclusions were those a fair and reasonable employer could reach.
“I accept that Mr Hallwright was able to continue carrying out duties related to the financial and strategic analysis of listed companies in the industries he covered, and to the expected standard,” Ms Monaghan says.
“However these duties were carried out at a senior level in circumstances where his own reputation, integrity and behaviour were relevant to overall perceptions fo the way Forsyth Barr conducted its business.
“The conduct of which he was guilty discredited him personally and tainted his position overall.
“Accordingly, the conclusion that it compromised his ability to carry out his duties was one a fair and reasonable employer could have reached."
Ms Monaghan pointed out Forsyth Barr had made a “minor” breach in not warning Hallwright he could be dismissed in the event of a conviction.
Back to home
Back to top
Print
Latest
NBR SERVICES
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Sign up for NBR subscriber content or email alerts
Comments and questions28
Hope he's not driving home after this.
Fair enough too. In the professions, reputation is everything. Hallwright didn't act in a way that was consisent with concern for his reputation. It compromised his ability to do his job.
Financial Analysis isn't a profession. It is an occupation.
Completely agree with the ERA's finding for once. Hallwright's reputation was totally compromised by his actions. What other decision was a responsible employer supposed to come to? Pleased to see the "system" recognise that professionals aren't supposed to act like thugs.
He's paid a big price for sure. Given Auckland's traffic management problem and over a million people who can't drive, who can honestly say they've never wanted to...
Big price? The victim paid the big price, not him!
$20,000 reparation? Big joke.
One million people who can't drive?
Sounds suspiciously to me like you are the one who is heading down the wrong side of the motorway and bitching about all the other drivers heading in the wrong direction?
Yes my numbers may be a little out so lets wait until the Census is collected tonight to clarify.
However I can confirm that I do not use the motorways for my daily commute though I do constantly complain about the slow, discourteous, disengaged, mechanically challenged, incompetent, dangerous and neanderthal manner in which most Kiwi’s drive.
You have a very disturbing view. It appears to be that people should be able to justify harming others because they are angry and somehow it is always someone else's fault.
Perhaps if you grow up and take responsibility for your actions - and the consequences for your actions - the world would be a better place. There is no excuse for thuggery.
Perhaps, but I've almost made it to 50 without a conviction so I seem to have road rage under control. So let's keep it that way please and pay attention to your surroundings when driving a try to be courteous to other road users. Also, next time you come across a vacant car park have a little drive around to become more familiar with the mechanics of your car.
It has to measure of the ERA's conceit, the time taken to render the decision. Plodding and ponderous. Ridiculous.
Totally unjust decision. He should appeal the finding.
A great decision at last from the ERA. He should move aside and let someone willing to meet our social standards enjoy a working life.
I hope his vitctim has made a full recovery? I also hope Mr Hallwright has found new employment elsewhere as an accountant. Heaven forbid he finds his only option to be that of a taxi or, even worse, a bus driver.
So, of what relevance was it to the road-rage story, that he was an employee of Forsyth Barr? I mean, if I walk out of the building and run the nearest person over, of what relevance to the 'story' is where I work (unless I am driving on work business, perhaps)?
Let's put aside the question of whether he has got what he deserved or not for a moment. I find it interesting - does this mean it is actually the media's appetite for arguably irrelevant detail, specifically the reporting of where he works(ed), which has resulted in him losing his job? Seems to me if the media hadn't shouted "Forsyth Barr" he may still have his job.
Goes with the territory. High profile, highly paid role = more responsibility to avoid criminal convictions. The media know that Bloomberg/Reuters squawk boxes will be abuzz with it anyway. They're just another messenger.
He should be in jail.
There have been plenty of foreign drivers I have felt like assaultng , difference is I didnt.
What about the hoons charging up and down the highways?
You ever feel like assaulting them?
Nope, you prefer to pick on some foreigners. In this case, Guy picked the wrong foreigner - nobody messes around with Koreans.
Good on the ERA for at last making a rational decision. This guy does not deserve a responsible job when he cannot conduct himself in accordance with normal decent society guidelines. There are many decent people who can equally well take his place. More power to the employer the get rid of people who cannot fit in.
Talk about pushing the envelope. The "guy" was treated leniently by a judge and now he's acting like he's the victim. He seems to not want to remember that there were independent witnesses to his actions at the time of the road-rage - and they were shocked by the callousness of his behaviour.
Hallwright should be polishing up his CV, rather than going down the road of appealing to the Employment Court.
Does that mean that a high-profile person who is convicted of drunk driving (outside work hours and not in relation to their job) should lose their job because they have breached decent society guidelines? Because we all know that doesn't happen.
yes
All police officers lose their jobs, so it does happen, Ruth Dyson also another example......
True - look at Colin Carruthers QC - he's still in Court wanting to send the Lombard directors to prison.
Costly heat of the moment... In hindsight, he should have gone for anger counselling.
So comedians who commit assaults on children get name suppression and in essence a get out of jail free card yet Hallwright was named, shamed and has lost his livelihood. Is this because he is a WASP?
And high profile lawyers who drink and drive and get convicted can carry on in their professions with no hint that this brings their ability to perform their job into question.