SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Suicide toll surpasses road deaths – Approval by Board of pro-suicide book slammed by Society.

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In the light of the release of new coroners’ figures on suicide rates, the Society is slamming a unanimous decision by the 8-member Film and Literature Board of Review to support the public availability of a sick book that provides step-by-step methods of how to commit suicide and assist others to do so. The book – The Peaceful Pill Handbook – now classified R18 by the Board, is authored by an elderly Australian zealot, obsessed with seeking notoriety for himself – via his his culture of death propaganda message and his exploitation of weak and vulnerable people who he convinces to fly to Mexico to obtain an illegal suicide drug he promotes in his book and at his fee-paying seminars.

The Dominion Post (25-26/10/08) reports:

“More people [in New Zealand] took their own lives than died in road crashes in the past year, new coroners’ figures show. In the year to the end of June, 511 suicides were reported to coroners – 1.4 self-inflicted deaths a day…. Chief coroner Judge Neil MacLean said … Raw data about suicides was ‘rather shocking’… [As a comparison] There were 422 road deaths last year.” (See link to full report below).

The Society wants New Zealanders to know the names of the Board members who, by their decision, have released a publication into circulation that advocates for and promotes suicide. The members involved in the decision were: Claudia Elliott (President), Dr Jo Baddeley (Deputy President), Judy Callingham, Judith Fyfe, Dr Ian Lambie, Mark Andersen, Andrea Haines, and Ani Waaka (All were recommended for appointment by the Labour-led government Minister of Internal Affairs). The Board upheld the R18 classification issued earlier by the Chief Censor’s Office.

Reference:

Dominion Post 25-26 October 2008

Suicide toll surpasses road deaths

by Lane Nichols

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4738796a20475.html

Employment Relations Authority suggestion on role of Chief Censor’s Office is laughable says employer lobby group.

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The Society points out that the recent judgment (8 October) by Employment Court Judge Coral Shaw, overturning the July 2007 ruling by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) that awarded $9,000 for hurt feelings to an employee, Jessica Wood, for unjust dismissal by her employer for her breach of company policy involving emails; highlights the bizarre nature of that flawed ERA decision. ERA member Dennis Asher who wrote it, was quite wrong to have suggested that an employer has to secure a classification decision from the Chief Censor’s Office confirming that an email is “objectionable”, before dismissing an employee for disseminating offensive and sexually explicit content in breach of company email policy.

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Media Release by Arthur D Riley & Co Ltd

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13 October 2008

The General Manager of Arthur D Riley & Co Ltd, Garth Mickell, says a level of common sense has been applied in the decision by the Employment Court which has found that his company was justified in dismissing an employee.

The case, which was originally an appeal against a decision from the Employment Relations Authority, involved the dismissal of an employee for forwarding offensive images by e-mail to internal and external recipients.

Ms Wood forwarded an email containing pictures of naked people, having twice previously been warned about similar behaviour.

Mr Mickell says his company has only applied the terms of employment and policies that Ms Wood had signed, and she had been warned about on more than one occasion.

“It has been a long and costly process, but we could not let the ERA ruling stand as is, due to the ongoing impact it may have on employment disputes. Each and every employment environment is different and this ruling allows this to be taken into account.”  [Read more…]

Landmark Court Decision on Misuse of Internet in Workplace. Dismissal by Company of Employee Upheld.

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Media Release 11 October 2008

The Society is delighted that the Employment Court in Wellington has recently issued a robust landmark decision that defends the rights of employers to enforce any company rules they have prohibiting their employees from accessing, downloading, uploading, saving, requesting, transmitting, storing or purposely viewing sexual, pornographic, obscene, racist, profane or other offensive and inappropriate material, using the workplace internet or intranet. The Court’s decision overturns a determination of the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) issued last year that was extensively covered in the media and featured in July 2007 on John Campbell’s TV3 Nightline programme.

“Employers have always had a right to dismiss employees who breach company policies relating to conduct in the workplace,” says Society Executive Director David Lane. “However, this Court decision, Arthur D Riley & Co Limited v Jessica Sharon Wood (WC 18/08; WRC 25/07) issued by Judge CM Shaw on 8 October 2008, underlines in case law, for the first time I am aware of, the rights of employers to tie their company policies to their own community/workplace standards in relation to objectonable/pornographic or offensive content, without relying on the liberal and flaky definition of what constitutes offensive and obscene content issued regularly by the Chief Censor’s Office – the so-called enlightened  ‘objective view’. Of course companies must set out fair and reasonable procedures that allow an employer to effectively deal with breaches of conduct in the use of the internet, clearly define inappropriate content and notify and warn employees of the consequences of all misconduct.”

Employment Court Judge Coral M Shaw has overturned an earlier determination that was issued by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) that upheld a wrongful dismissal claim by a Wellington woman Miss Jessica Sharon Wood against her employer Arthur D Riley & Co Lts (ADR). The substantial financial compensation awarded her by the ERA, made against ADR, has now been negated by the Employment Court which has ruled that all of it (paid in full by ADR into the Court, pending appeal result) – 75% of her lost wages from 18 September 2006 to January 2007 and $9,000 damages for humiliation – must be returned with interest to the plaintiff (ADR). The Court has reversed the decision of the ERA by now reserving costs in favour of the plaintiff, which has 28 days from the date of the Court’s decision, 8 October, to submit its claims against Miss Wood.

The Society Director David Lane praises Mr Garth Mickell, Director of a private electricity and water metering business, Arthur D Riley & Co Ltd (ADR), the plaintiff, for challenging the appallingly incompetent and flawed decision issued last year by Mr Denis Asher of the ERA.

In an email dated 10 October Mickell wrote to the Society:

“First thank you for your support, and advise. Attached for your reference is the employment court determination. We are thankful that commonsense has prevailed, and there is now the ability of places of work to be able to determine their level of  morality and ethics, without influence from central government.”

To reiterate: employers now have a right, recognised by the Employment Court, to enforce company policy relating to what they consider constitutes objectionable/pornographic or offensive content without having to get an “objective” determination from the Chief Censor’s Office. Employers can also determine what constitutes “serious misconduct” relating to such material without having to have the liberal Chief Censor’s Office effectively negate the fair and reasonable community standards they seek to uphold in the workplace.

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Film “End of the Spear” R16 rating downgraded to R13 following Society’s successful appeal

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Press Release 4 July 2008

The film “End of the Spear” has had its classification downgraded from R16 to R13 following a successful appeal by the Society against the classification decision issued by the Chief Censor’s Office. The Society contended in its written and oral submisssion to the Board that the nature of the depiction of violence in the film – medium level violence – could not possibly justify an R16 classification. The nine member Film and Literature Board of Review agreed and in a unanimous decision, issued to the Society on Wednesday this week, took the view that 13, 14 and 15 year old children would not be harmed by exposure to the violence which formed only a small part of a compelling Christian message of forgiveness and redemption that is told based on the “true story” of the missionary outreach in the 1950s, to the violent South American Waodani Indian tribe. A revised censor’s note from the Board, alerts viewers to the medium level violence involving tribal warfare that some might find “disturbing”.

This is the second successful appeal by the Society in recent years involving a major Christian film that has led to its classification rating – issued by the Chief Censor’s Office – being downgraded by the Board. The Society made both oral and written submissions to the Board to overturn the R16 classification of Mel Gibson’s blockbuster film “The Passion”, and this led it to being reclassified R15. The applicant in this case was the film’s distributor and the Society opted to take a role as an interested party.

The Society has as one of its six objectives: the promotion of freedom of expression, within the boundaries of good law that safeguards the public good from injury.