Tuesday, 20 January 2004 - 4:51pm |
National News

No appeal on Waugh Case

1 min read

Police have decided not to appeal the Employment Court judgment in the Waugh case.

General Manager of Human Resources, Wayne Annan, said that Commissioner Robinson had made the decision.

"Our assessment was that these matters have been thoroughly aired through the court system and to proceed further would achieve little.

"The history and circumstances of the Waugh case are so unique as to be clearly distinguishable from most other cases Police are facing or are likely to face in future.

"Police processes for dealing with employee issues have been refined and improved in comparison to those in place seven years ago. We are confident that we would handle matters differently than we did back in the 1990s.

"We also intend continuing analysis on Justice Goddard’s judgment with a view to examining whether current policies and procedures are totally robust or whether, as an additional measure, some fine tuning of the employment components of the Police Act might be warranted.

"Contemplation of any statutory changes would only take place after thorough policy scrutiny and following any subsequent discussions with the Minister of Police but there is certainly no rush to do that," said Mr Annan.

Mr Annan said discussions around a return to work for Mr Waugh and remedies relating to such things as salary arrears and legal costs would be addressed in with Mr Waugh and his counsel. Those discussions would commence in the near future. Meanwhile Mr Waugh was back on the payroll and on annual leave.