Unfair dismissal payout for worker

Te Puni Kokiri (the Ministry of Maori Development) has been ordered to reinstate an executive sacked after a bag of methamphetamine was allegedly found in its HQ.

Paul Travers-Jones, 47, took an unfair dismissal case to the Employment Relations Authority over his sacking in March after the bag was found in ministry toilets.

Authority member Denis Asher found that Mr Travers-Jones had been unjustifiably dismissed.

He ordered that he be reinstated within two weeks, receive all pay lost between being sacked and reinstated and be paid $10,500 compensation for humiliation.

The ministry had said his failure to tell senior management when he learned of the drug's discovery amounted to serious misconduct.

Mr Travers-Jones says he had been through "six months of hell".