Tuesday 2 December 2008

Cairns Port Authorty security guard 'counselled'

Kerry Egerton Cairns Port Authority Employee and PR manager, has admitted that there was dangerous and unsafe behaviour carried out by a Cairns Port Authority security guard.

In responding to the formal compliant I laid last month, following community protests to save the historic Cairns Yacht Club, Egerton said the Port Authority undertook a Workplace Health and Safety investigation. They spoke with a number of independent witnesses.

"The investigation considered the causes and consequences of the incident and a series of unsafe issues have been identified," Kerry Egerton admitted. "A number of these relate to the protesters and these have been referred to Division of Workplace Health and Safety."

The Port Authority has also admitted that the security guard at the centre of the complaint, pictured above, has now been reprimanded for his dangerous actions that morning. "The guard involved has been counselled in regards to his actions and required responsibilities in the future," Egerton said.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another Michael Moore exaggeration.

The word "counseled" and "reprimanded" have completely different meanings, dude. (The word "counselled" you used has no meaning - there is no such word).

You've likely slandered this guard by claiming he's been "reprimanded" if he hasn't been.

No exaggeration too big for the Cairns Blogger.

Anonymous said...

Counselled is a word used frequently in the business community. It is not a reprimand, but an action taken by management to educate the recipient on the inappropriate nature of a behaviour and provide guidance as to how the matter should have been handled. This includes ensuring the person being counselled is adequately trained for their role, and an output of this counselling may be to retrain the recipient in relevant aspects of their employment. Counselling is less than a reprimand. Typically, the order of discipline would be counselling, followed by reprimand, followed by the first written warning, followed by two more written warnings, followed by dismissal. This escalation of discipline is subject to the seriousness of the offence and complies with unfair dismissal legislation. I think your criticism of Mike is way off the mark.