Sacked Radio New Zealand news boss Lynne Snowdon says she is frustrated and disappointed but determined to continue her fight to regain her job and restore her reputation.
Snowdon, aged 50, of Wellington, was given two months' notice this week that her $105,000-a-year job as managing editor at the statebroadcaster would be terminated, but it has been two years since she last stepped inside the door of Broadcasting House.
Taxpayers have paid the full cost of her executive salary - one of the highest at RNZ - since she suffered stress and went on sick leave early in 2003 after being accused of financial mismanagement.
Her return to work has been blocked while lawyers for her and the company fought battles on several fronts and in various courts over who was really at fault for the budget blowout blamed on Snowdon.
Both sides are believed to have amassed legal bills of at least $100,000, with RNZ's possibly twice that amount and set to rise considerably as it defends itself against defamation proceedings by Snowdon and now a claim of unjustified dismissal.
Inevitable comparisons are being made with TVNZ's sacking of high-paid newsreader John Hawkesby in 1999. He was paid out between $6 million and $8 million 12 months later after a private arbitrator made a calculation based on lost potential earnings. It was decided that the dumping effectively ended his career.
In Snowdon's case, there was a breakdown in her relationship with the now-retired chief executive, Sharon Crosbie, who hired her for the position a decade ago.
Initially the company claimed she was not fit for work for health reasons but in the Employment Court last July it backed off that claim.
This week it cited an irretrievable breakdown in the employment relationship as grounds for the sacking, although Snowdon has never worked under the present chief executive, Australian Peter Cavanagh.
"I just want to get back to work," Snowdon said yesterday. Until this week she has avoided speaking to reporters, leaving the talking to her lawyer, Dr Rob Moodie.
"It's terribly frustrating. I have to pursue my remedies through the courts to prove that I haven't done anything wrong."
