Call to support victims of bullying

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) is failing the victims of workplace bullying, says CultureSafe NZ director Allan Halse.

Workplace bullying victims are put through a process which treats the issue as an employment matter and not a health and safety one, Halse said.

“The issue of bullying is not an employment matter and the victims of bullying are not getting a fair hearing — it’s a total sham,” he said. “I’m hoping it doesn’t take the prosecution of a suicide case to change New Zealand’s laws to recognise that bullying is a criminal act and a health and safety issue.”

CultureSafe NZ is a business set up to combat bullying in the workplace.

It is next to impossible for workplace bullying victims to win an ERA case, Halse said.

“Basically, victims who are petrified of the bullying must raise a formal personal grievance with the employer within 90 days of every bullying incident, or in the eyes of the ERA, the bullying never happened,” he said.

CultureSafe NZ has refused to work on current cases for this reason.

“It is impossible to win a case with the Employment Relations Authority when evidence is excluded,” Halse said.

“This new worker-friendly Government must step up, and not brush the issue of bullying under the mat like National.”

Introducing legislation to combat this would increase workplace productivity and foster better working relationships, Halse said.

One in five people are bullied at work, according to a study by Massey University.

Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Iain LeesGalloway said he had been advised that the ERA could deal with health and safety matters including workplace bullying if they were raised as part of a personal grievance.

“Workplace bullying is a matter that the Government takes very seriously,” he said. “I am confident that the current law allows people to challenge workplace bullying and for perpetrators to be penalised appropriately.”