NEW ZEALAND - STOP BULLYING ALLAN HALSE SAYS WORLD EXPERT. DR GARY NAMIE'S MESSAGE BELOW.

See Dr Gary Namie's letter in full below:

"May 30, 2022

To: New Zealand Officials

Hon. Michael Wood, Minister, Workplace Relations and Safety

Hon. Andrew Little, Minister, Health

Hon. Kris Faafoi, Minister, Justice

Chief Judge Christina Inglis, Employment Court

Phil Parkes, Chief Executive, WorkSafe

Andrew Dallas, Chief of the Employment Relations Authority

From: Gary Namie, PhD, Co-Founder & Director, Workplace Bullying Institute (U.S.)

Re: Allan Halse,

CultureSafe NZ On the eve of the day Prime Minister Ardern meets with US President Biden, I implore the above-named government officials to intervene in the the matter of Allan Halse, employee advocate for hundreds of workers seeking justice in Employment Relations Authority disputes, who is unfairly being driven to personal and business bankruptcy via the imposition of unwarranted penalties by the ERA.

Ardern and Biden will meet to compare and contrast their approaches to social issues. In most cases, New Zealand adopts superior solutions to America. I'm an American who once believed the mythical ethos promoted by Ardern -- Kiwis are a compassionate people.

One problem present in both the US and NZ is workplace bullying (health-harming abusive conduct): afflicting an estimated 25% of workers in your country and 30% in America. It is the non-physical, sub-lethal form of workplace violence. Neither country has prioritized either recognition or elimination of this destructive phenomenon.

Anti-bullying awareness

I attended a 2018 conference in Wellington on the topic that featured presentations by then-Justice Minister Andrew Little and then WorkSafe Chief Executive Nicole Rosie ostensibly acknowledging bullying's toxic presence in NZ culture. Hon. Andrew Little, currently Health Minister, recorded his support for 2022 Pink Shirt Day, the international day to stop bullying, and posted it on social media. Hence, for officials currently to ignore bullying in NZ is disingenuous.

In the report -- Bullying and harassment at work: Consultation submissions analysis -- produced by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in November 2021, the ERA resolution pathway was deemed re-traumatizing and not supportive of the complainant.

Bullying is not a workplace "dispute"

As an expert observer with 25 years experience in the phenomenon (teaching, research, advocacy, coaching, writing), I can say bullying, abusive conduct, and work trauma are cases dealing with employee health. We international experts agree that bullying is not conflict between rational actors. HR deals with conflict. The mission of the ERA is dispute resolution, i.e., conflict resolution.

The NZ Health and Safety at Work Regulations of 2016 mandate that employers manage risks better aligned with psychosocial work hazards. Bullying with its stress-related physical health consequences fits squarely with OHS. Resolution requires training or experience with the dynamics of interpersonal abuse. Nowhere on the ERA website is there a claim that Members with the power to make unilateral case determinations have either clinical training or a familiarity with organizational psychology to inform their judgements.

Ideally, WorkSafe would be the government agency to best deal with workplace bullying and its impact on aggrieved individuals. At the 2018 Wellington conference, I heard then-Chief Rosie say that she felt no obligation to deal with bullying, despite the Australian counterpart agency, also WorkSafe, having led the response to workplace bullying since the 1990's. In fact, the 2021 MBIE report suggested that WorkSafe treat bullying, recognized internationally to pose psychosocial and behavioural risks, as it does physical injury risks.

An explanation for the ERA/RTB campaign against Halse/CultureSafe NZ

Section 236 of the year 2000 Employment Relations Act that created the Authority allows for complainants to designate an advocate who is not a lawyer. Over the years, hundreds of ERA complainants designated Mr. Halse as their representative. Halse faced legal adversaries representing employers in every case.

Based on the ERA determinations I've read and the several ERA complainants I've personally met, the politically appointed Authority Members rarely demonstrate compassion for victims of abusive conduct at work. In addition, more than one Member has shown contempt for Mr. Halse, the nation's most experienced employee advocate not legally trained.

Rather than cure the toxicity of its work environment, Ranguira Trust Board, an employer who has lost previous cases to Halse's clients, became a willing partner in the ERA's coordinated attacks on Halse and his small not-for-profit organization, CultureSafe NZ. RTB was not the first disgruntled loser to Halse in ERA cases that tried to put him out of business.

The ERA manufactured a dubious reason to levy a substantial fine and penalties against him (an alleged violation of a NDA via disparagement of a defendant, even though Halse was only the advocate, not the client who brought the case and there were no violations related to an Investigatory meeting). Halse challenges the ERA's authority to levy the fine. His challenge to the ERA was denied by the ERA!

He has asked the Employment Court to delve into the details of the ERA/RTB charges against him to discover how unfounded they were. Instead, the EC, has, to date, accepted the allegations as factual without reviewing any evidence. This suggests that the ERA and EC do not function independently or non-defensively when it comes to Halse.

I see reciprocated contempt by both parties. Both the employer and ERA despised Halse -- RTB for his candor about its indifference toward the workers they bullied and ERA for his public statements that the ERA is ill-suited to hear bullying cases (both statements are factual). There are documents, along with an established pattern of actions against Halse by the ERA, to show ERA Members seem to resent Halse's participation in ERA cases. Perhaps, because ERA Members share legal pedigrees with employer representatives, all lawyers, the Members seem disgusted by Sec. 236 of the Act. Member Robinson characterized Halse as having a "vitriolic personal opinion about the Authority" in the Whale v. Ranguira Trust determination.

Methinks ERA Members are too thin-skinned. Would the ERA consider bringing disparagement charges against the MBIE for the analysis of its 2021 survey and consultations with individuals and organizations around NZ?

I also understand Halse's contrarian approach to employers and the ERA. He is not an apologist or one to speak with political equivocation. He is not a politician. Employee advocacy comes naturally for Halse, a veteran of union representation. He is incredulous that government representatives (in the ERA or EC or WorkSafe) can show indifference to the epidemic of workplace bullying. He feels his right to speak freely will be infringed if the ERA/RTB plan to compel obsequiousness to government authority and to drive him into insolvency succeeds.

You see, Halse's work at CultureSafe vicariously exposes him to the severest cases of workplace-induced trauma. The impact he sees on victims (complainants) and their families is visceral to him. Further, his immersion in the scientific literature regarding the impact on victims' health coupled with his innate drive to serve others accounts for his indefatigable crusade, if you will, to eliminate bullying one case at a time.

Allan Halse is the unrivaled expert on workplace bullying in NZ. He need not ever apologize for his fierce advocacy on behalf of wounded clients. It's a sense of purpose foreign to lawyers and government bureaucrats who invoke dispassionate professionalism to protect themselves from emotional engagement at work.

For example, coworkers and family members of four RTB workers who they worried would commit suicide reached out to Halse for support. It was RTB that was responsible that toxic workplace. Halse told the RTB story on social media as a means of protecting public health -- work at RTB at your own peril. RTB backed with the power of the government via the ERA is threatening to silence Halse, accusing him of disparaging RTB. Truth telling is not disparagement.

I have personally spoken to thousands of people bullied at work. I know what Halse has heard. I serve as America's most recognized expert witness in cases where toxic and abusive work environments operate. However, there is no equivalent Section 236 that enables me to represent bullied workers in our courts. Our system is too expensive and exclusionary. I envy the advocacy role NZ has given Halse.

Hope for the future

Allan Halse is a New Zealand hero to all workers mistreated at work. The government, in concert with a powerful employer, must not be allowed to destroy the person best able to help afflicted, traumatized workers when no one else will. Please intervene to get justice for Halse and his small, but mighty organization, CultureSafe NZ.

Respectfully,

Gary Namie, PhD

WBI Co-Founder & Director

[email protected] "