An unhealthy obsession
July 31st, 2011 at 10:30 am by David FarrarSusan Pepperell at HoS reports:
A former Radio New Zealand news boss who has been fighting her sacking for more than six years has placed a new dossier in front of the Serious Fraud Office, alleging money went missing from the state broadcaster between 1999 and 2003.
But the toll on Lynne Snowdon has been severe.
She was due to appear in court in Wellington tomorrow for the next stage in what has become a costly and protracted employment dispute, but her husband and lawyer John Hickling has sought an adjournment because Snowdon’s health is too bad. She could not stand up to the rigour of courtroom questioning.
I am not surprised her health is bad. She has fought a jihad for eight years against Radio NZ, since she lost her job there. Now I’m all for fighting for your rights, but Snowdon has taken this beyond rational levels. I imagine she has turned herself unemployable.
“It has been extremely expensive and has taken a terrible toll. It’s unrelenting and you can’t get on with your life,” Hickling said.
Hickling tries to make it sound like Radio NZ is responsible for it dragging on six years, when of course it is his wife. No one has forced her to run to the SFO, to appeal multiple times on multiple issues.
She managed to get two years sick leave at $120/000 year before she was let go. As far as I can tell, she believes she should have remained on sick leave for life. Most employees have a maximum of 5 – 10 days a year – she got 500 days.
Tags: Lynne Snowdon, Radio NZ
July 31st, 2011 at 10:39 am
Of the $12 million that the Snowdon commissioned report alleges was misappropriated – $2.5 million was reported to have been spent defending Snowdon’s case? Gall much?
Vote:July 31st, 2011 at 11:00 am
She managed to get two years sick leave at $120/000 year before she was let go.
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Most people would get around $2000. No wonder their poo-poos don’t smell.
July 31st, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Had to refresh my memory on this one – it has been going on for ‘that’ long! Perhaps the whole mess can be put into context by this extract from the 2010 Court of Appeal Judgement: “…we are of the view that the time has come for the procedural music to stop.”
Snowden should consider herself very fortunate that she has been paid very generously by RNZ – for a long period of time. Time for her to accept it’s time to move on. But she is clearly toxic and therefore unemployable.
http://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/employment-court/documents/CA142-2010.pdf
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3862434/Former-RNZ-boss-loses-latest-appeal
Vote:July 31st, 2011 at 1:00 pm
If she has turned herself unemployable because of it.. she will have to live of any remaining savings she has left.. before she is entitled to get the unemployment benefit.
Vote:July 31st, 2011 at 1:23 pm
It’s never a great idea to have a spouse or other close family member as one’s lawyer (other than on relatively routine stuff like conveyancing or Wills, and even with those there can be pitfalls).
In contentious situations, the best legal advice tends to be completely dispassionate.
Vote:July 31st, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Unhealthy obsession is exactly right.
RNZ should eventually be in a position to claim costs
thats why she’s dragging it out so long …
Probably has all her assets in a trust by now.
Vote:July 31st, 2011 at 1:41 pm
Did the denial of Legal aid to Petrovic who was clearly able to access benefits from “Family trusts to allow him to defend the fraud charges” indicate any change in the law around trusts.
Vote:July 31st, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Hmmm. It looks like it’s time for the Solicitor General to petition the High Court to declare this creature a vexatious litigant.
I’m astonished that NZ’s employment legislation has allowed this situation to develop.
Vote:July 31st, 2011 at 8:20 pm
Snowdon may well have become unemployable. But her case illustrates the point that if you take a lot of sick leave, you may well be overlooked for promotion and that may affect your pay. Given that women take more sick leave than men, that is likely to be a factor in the gender pay gap. It’s a point that I recall Alisdair Thomspon making recently but it was lost in the gnashing of teeth that followed his comments.
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