TECT Park Ranger Jarron McInnes is being forced to fight for the court reprieve he's been granted following his dismissal by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council in February.

Jarron was dismissed on February 3, but remains living with his family at the park's ranger house.

Jarron McInnes, ordered reinstated by the ERA. Photo: File

On March 22, the Employment Relations Authority ordered the council to reinstate him as TECT park ranger until the Employment Court case hears his claim of unjustifiable dismissal.

But the council doesn't want to, and last week appealed the ERA order in Tauranga District Court before Employment Court Judge Christina Inglis.

Council's lawyers told Judge Inglis it should not have to do what the ERA orders because they claim Jarron's dismissal was justified.

Council believes reinstating him could not possibly be an option because of the trust and confidence issues that have arisen over the dismissal process, and that some council staff involved in his dismissal might resign if Jarron is reinstated.

Jarron, who has a blemish free seven year record of being the TECT park ranger, was fired because of an incident at the park on January 12.

He defended himself when attacked by a drunken French freedom camper by striking him on the head with his torch. It was after 10pm at night.

Jarron's story that he was on his back being held down and punched when he struck the tourist with his torch was the version generally accepted by the council – except for the insulting words used by the tourist that sparked the physical confrontation when Jarron asked what he thought he had heard.

The council issue is that Jarron failed to de-escalate the situation, and in fact, seriously aggravated it. Council lawyer Tim Condor said Jarron has a history as there was a previous incident with a pig hunter and police.

Jarron's lawyer Shima Grice says that incident happened in 2009 and he hadn't receive any formal training until 2014. Furthermore, there was no disciplinary action taken in 2009, and even if there had been the time since made it meaningless.

The allegations were never put to Jarron and none of the claimed incidents involved violence. None of them went on his written record. Even if there had been a warning, it would have expired well before January 2016.

The reasoning supporting the council decision was introduced after the fact to bolster a bad decision, says Shima.

She also attacked the council's use of the Frenchman's translated statement. He used a false address, and the statement should be disregarded, she submitted.

Notes from a staff meeting on January 26 cast doubt on whether the Frenchman, who spoke little English, would understand the insult. The inference being that Jarron came up with the words himself. It was a comment made by Jarron's immediate superior Bill Wheeler on January 21, says Shima.

The notes showed the views were adopted by council staff when they met with Jarron on January 26.

The dismissal process itself segued from fact finding to dismissal over a series of about four meetings in late January and early February, with acting CEO Gary Allis telling Jarron at the end of the second-to-last meeting that he was seeking a dismissal and that council CEO Miriam Taris was okay with that.

Jarron went home and sent a farewell email to council colleagues at 3.30am. When the office opened that morning the council informed staff, park user groups and media that Jarron was dismissed. This was several hours before a meeting scheduled for 2pm, when the final decision on whether or not he would keep his job was supposed to have been made.

If Miriam Taris dismissed Jarron, it was a breach of natural justice, says Shima.

During last week's court appearance, Shima says Miriam was not present at any of the meetings, asking the question: 'if she's delegated authority then why did Gary Allis feel he had to inform Jarron that Miriam approved of the dismissal?”

Shima also attacked council's failure to advise Jarron to seek legal advice when Gary required a still emotionally upset Jaron to produce a written incident report by 2pm on January 13.

That report was used by the council in determining his fate and Jarron was not told about or given the opportunity to take legal advice on it.

Judge Inglis reserved her decision.