Grubby emailer wins his job back

Philip Walker says the smutty messages were a part of work culture. Photo / AP

A worker sacked for sending dozens of grubby emails has got his job back after successfully arguing that the correspondence was part of a wider work culture.

Philip Walker said a culture of sending emails "where the content was not likely to offend and was banter between colleagues" existed at his Safe Air workplace in Blenheim.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found in Mr Walker's favour, awarding him $1000 for "a loss of dignity and injury to his feelings' and ordering Safe Air to reinstate him.

Mr Walker, a purchasing officer at the Air New Zealand subsidiary, was sacked in February after sending 425 non-work-related emails to colleagues and family members between March and September last year.

Safe Air said 26 of these were "emails of concern" containing explicit depictions of lewdness, nudity and/or sex acts.