Union accused of discriminating against employee

A union employee who has been stood down from his job after standing as a candidate for the Act party will have a number of hurdles to jump if he takes action against his bosses, employment experts say.

Shawn Tan was suspended by the Labour-affiliated EPMU union because he did not seek permission to stand as a candidate.

“It is illegal to discriminate on the grounds of political affiliation,” said EMA (Northern) Manager of Employment Relations David Lowe.

If an employee could prove unlawful discrimination in the workplace, the claim could be pursued through either the Human Rights Tribunal or through the Employment Relations Authority.

However, the threshold for proving discrimination in the workplace is high.

“You would have to prove that you’ve been treated differently from anyone else, and that you had been treated unfairly. You would have to do that before you could speculate about the motive.”

Mr Tan was suspended and faces a disciplinary meeting on Monday for a breach of the union’s rules and his collective agreement, which stipulate that an employee must seek the permission of the national executive before standing
for local or national government.

That rule does not discriminate on political affiliation if it is applied to all employees.

Mr Tan did not apply for permission. However, he said his supervisor told him he should resign if he was thinking about standing for Act when he first raised the subject.

And EPMU national secretary Andrew Little told NBR that Mr Tan’s desire to stand for Act would probably have been considered by the executive if he had applied.

He also said that it was not normal for the executive to grant permission for employees to stand if they had been employed for as short a time as Mr Tan in any case, and previous decisions had been made on the basis of workloads and availability.

Earlier this year an employee’s request to stand for the Labour party in local government was turned down.