A former Victoria University education professor who fell out with senior faculty members over a postgraduate student who claimed to have experienced interplanetary travel has been awarded $90,000 by the Employment Court.
Adrienne Alton-Lee fell into the bad books of senior faculty members by challenging their decision to send the student, whose mental stability she questioned, out to teach in a school.
Chief Judge Tom Goddard awarded Dr Alton-Lee a total of $90,000 for breach of contract after an 18-day hearing between January and March.
In the decision, released this week, Judge Goddard said the insistence of the faculty dean and other staff in overriding Dr Alton-Lee's concerns about her student was just one example of "an attitude towards the plaintiff that caused her disadvantage throughout her employment."
The student lasted only a day at the school before being rejected on the grounds that "she was continuing to assert in all seriousness that she had lately returned to Earth from interplanetary travel."
The first $15,000 of Dr Alton-Lee's breach-of-contract win was awarded because the university made a premature announcement that her employment contract would not be renewed, despite earlier agreement between the parties to consult first.
Judge Goddard ordered Victoria to pay her $11,735 withheld from the second year's funding of research that she ended up financing by selling her house. He awarded Dr Alton-Lee $25,000 for the stress provoked by this and $10,000 for loss of advancement that could result from her job loss.
His biggest award, of $40,000, was made as compensation for the university's failing to publish a letter announcing her resignation as dean of the faculty. Costs were reserved.
- NZPA
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from New Zealand
'It's the Hauraki way': Council shuffles councillors to add Māori ward
Hauraki District Council voted to introduce Māori wards in October 2023.