A school bus driver sacked after letting pupils take photos of themselves with his camera says he has no regrets.
Single father John Grant has been awarded more than $14,500 in damages from the employer that sacked him after it was found his dismissal was unjustified.
Mr Grant, who is now unemployed and struggling to find work, told APNZ he hoped to eventually have the photos of the children processed so he could give them to the pupils.
The 58-year-old was asked by the students to use his camera during a bus ride to Riwaka School, about 5km north of Motueka near Nelson, in August last year.
He had taken the camera onto the bus and had asked one of the pupils to take a photo of him near the vehicle as a keepsake because he was considering quitting his job as a driver, he said.
When the children became aware of the camera they got excited and asked if they could take photos.
"They all said 'Can we take a photo?'. They all took photos of themselves on the bus - they didn't stop laughing on the way to school,'' Mr Grant said.
Some children mentioned it to their parents, who complained to the school's Board of Trustees about Mr Grant taking the camera.
He was issued a second and final warning by his boss Maurice Hebberd, the owner of Hebberds Bus Services.
Mr Grant said he could not remember what the first warning was for, but said the camera incident was an overreaction by parents.
"Everybody's paranoid and they're all wanting to complain,'' he said.
"From my point of view I shouldn't have to (explain that taking the photos was not malicious). I rang the headmistress and told her there's nothing inappropriate happening.''
In September Mr Grant was fired after the acting principal of Riwaka School wrote to Mr Hebberd about concerns that Mr Grant was continuing to drive for the company.
She asked that a supervisor travel with him or he be removed from the run altogether.
When Mr Grant returned to the office that day he was fired.
He took his dismissal to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA), saying he was unjustifiably disadvantaged and dismissed.
"There was no investigation carried out by the employer. Mr Grant was not given notice of any disciplinary proceedings and Mr Grant did not have a proper opportunity to provide an explanation,'' ERA member Dzintra King said in her findings.
The bus owner said he did not need to conduct an investigation because the matter was clear.
However Ms King said Mr Grant had an innocent explanation for the incident.
"It is very unfortunate that a number of people appear to have reached conclusions based on inadequate evidence.''
Although it was foolish for Mr Grant to take a camera onto the bus and then let children use it, he did not act with any untoward or maleficent motivation, Ms King said.
Mr Grant said he enjoyed being a bus driver at Hebberds for three years.
"I'm trying all the time (to go back into the workforce), but nothing's popping up to suit me,'' he said. "I'm getting older so it's harder to get work now.''
Mr Grant said he was frustrated by people who did not know New Zealand's privacy laws about people taking photos in public.
He plans to eventually meet with the parents who first complained about him taking photos on the bus.
"Once I get the money in my bank (from the unfair dismissal case) I'll probably go to where these mothers on the parents' committee stand and probably take a photo of them,'' he said.
Hebberds Bus Services was ordered to pay Mr Grant $8500 in compensation, $3080 in holiday pay, $309.40 as reimbursement for unjustified suspension, and $2618 as reimbursement for the unjustified dismissal.
The company is reportedly appealing the order.
- By Hana Garrett-Walker and Kieran Campbell of APNZ
