Council must pay $88k for bullying of worker

Waimakariri District Council has been ordered to pay $88,000 to a manager who it failed to protect from bullying by two other staff members, the Employment Relations Authority says.

Tracy Quinton-Boundy resigned from her role as manager of the Environmental Services Unit in December 2020.

She said was bullied by her manager and her executive assistant, and that the council did not take any steps to stop the bullying.

Her manager, called RJH in the authority’s decision, and her executive assistant, called CPT, had worked together for years and were friends outside of work. They had regular and extensive meetings during the day, and often had lunch together.

Quinton-Boundy’s executive assistant would bypass her and talk to RJH about operational matters instead. Decisions were made by the pair without discussion with Quinton-Boundy.

‘‘Overall CPT undermined Ms Quinton-Boundy; she would not respond productively to Ms Quinton-Boundy, refusing to do certain things and speaking badly of her to others,’’ Employment Relations Authority member Peter van Keulensaid in his decision.

‘‘CPT could not be managed by Ms Quinton-Boundy because of her attitude to her, her actions and because she was supported by RJH.’’

Van Keulen said the pair’s actions met the definition of bullying as behaviour that was repeated and unreasonable; was directed at a worker, or group of workers; and could lead to physical or psychological harm.

The behaviour went on for a number of months and occurred regularly, he said.

As a result of their actions, Quinton-Boundy lost confidence, became anxious and stressed, was fearful and sad, and withdrew and isolated herself.

Counsel for the council said it did not know Quinton-Boundy was being bullied, and it believed she was managing the issues.

Quinton-Boundy talked to human resources about the behaviour, and followed HR advice to performance manage her executive assistant but nothing changed. She also talked to the council chief executive about the issue.

The chief executive’s solution was to use the pending retirement of Quinton-Boundy’s manager to move him out of his management role. He discussed it with the manager and believed the problems would be resolved.

RJH resigned in September 2020 and worked out a three-month notice period. In the meantime, the situation worsened, according to Quinton-Boundy, and she resigned on December 16, 2020.

Quinton-Boundy alleged that because she was being bullied, the council did not provide a safe workplace.

WDC said the bullying was not foreseeable, and it did not know she was being bullied based on what she told it and what it understood was happening. It treated QuintonBoundy’s concerns as a conflict of interest.

Van Keulen said it was ‘‘wholly inadequate’’ to continually expect Quinton-Boundy to manage her own relationships with the pair.

Van Keulen ordered the council to pay $35,000 compensation to Quinton-Boundy for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings, and $47,153 reimbursement for lost pay, as well as $1414 KiwiSaver contribution.

The council was also ordered to pay a $12,000 penalty for its breach of duty of good faith, $7800 of which was to go to Quinton-Boundy.