Bullying rife among firefighters

Staff at Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) have been threatened with violence, and bullying is widespread, a new report reveals.

The review, by retired judge Coral Shaw was released yesterday. It made 33 recommendations on how Fenz could better address bullying and harassment.

One staff member told the review what they were experiencing was ‘‘almost insidious’’.

Another said: ‘‘I was told to ‘shut the f... up’. ‘If we want something out of you, we’ll kick it out of you.’ ’’

Another said they were threatened with violence: ‘‘He often threatened to smash and kill me. He’d say, ‘Come down to the engine bay’, and what he would do too would be the old punishment drill.’’

There were also reports of racial discrimination, the report said.

‘‘I mean . . . general racism towards our clients, coming from the very highest level,’’ one said. ‘‘Even from the ‘chief’, who calls Chinese people ‘chinks’, ‘slants’, and calls Indian people ‘curries’.’’

Another reported they had seen team leaders make sexist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic comments with no repercussions.

The review was called for last year after the merging of almost 40 firefighting branches into one organisation in 2017.

There was almost ‘‘unanimous acceptance’’ among those spoken to that Fenz needed to address its culture of bullying, but there was uncertainty about what constituted bullying or harassment, the report said.

While 45 per cent of people reported witnessing and/or experiencing bullying or harassment at the organisation, more than half did not report it.

That was commonly because of fear of repercussions or harming working relationships, or because they felt it would not make any difference.

Fenz chief executive Rhys Jones said the report was wide-ranging and confronting.

He acknowledged it would be difficult to change ingrained behaviour among many staff, but was confident those people wanted to change. The first step would be outlining what inappropriate behaviour was, and how to deal with it.

‘‘The core thing that came out of the report is our people know that they need to change, and they want to change. It is not going to be a choice – it is the direction that we’re heading in.’’

The report was a defining moment for the organisation, and one it wanted to seize, Jones said. He thanked everyone who shared their stories, and said Fenz was committed to making sure all of its 14,000 staff felt respected and included, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, orientation or beliefs.

The report’s recommendations included adopting a new set of values and code of behaviour, and ‘‘removing barriers to reporting bullying and harassment’’.

CultureSafe NZ director Allan Halse said he had dealt with many big bullying cases in the fire service, with one of them being probably ‘‘New Zealand’s worst bully’’.

But things have improved. ‘‘There’s still historic cases that they’re trying to resolve but, in the nation, they’d be currently one of the most proactive employers that we’ve dealt with.

‘‘If you were to ask me 18 months ago I would’ve said they’re the worst employers . . . but now they’re one of the best.’’