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Waikato Business News September/October 2018

Waikato Business News has for a quarter of a century been the voice of the region’s business community, a business community with a very real commitment to innovation and an ethos of co-operation.

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WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS <strong>September</strong>/<strong>October</strong> <strong>2018</strong> 27<br />

Bullying complaints require a<br />

calm, proportionate response<br />

It is becoming increasingly common<br />

for bullying complaints to be raised by<br />

employees in the workplace. This increase<br />

is likely due to increased media attention<br />

on bullying and widely-publicised employer<br />

obligations to provide safe workplaces under<br />

the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.<br />

What is also noticeable<br />

is that some employers<br />

are increasingly<br />

overreacting to such complaints.<br />

By no means am I<br />

suggesting that the complaints<br />

should not be addressed<br />

promptly and appropriately;<br />

they most definitely should.<br />

However, the response should<br />

be proportionate to the complaint.<br />

A major contributor to<br />

employers overreacting is a<br />

burgeoning cottage industry<br />

of “experts” who appear to<br />

be recommending to employers<br />

that an allegation by one<br />

employee against another<br />

warrants a company-wide<br />

investigation into “workplace<br />

culture”. Unfortunately, those<br />

who recommend such an<br />

extensive investigation also<br />

stand to gain financially by<br />

carrying out the investigation.<br />

So how can employers be sure<br />

that such an investigation is<br />

actually required?<br />

Firstly, when a bullying<br />

allegation is raised by one<br />

employee against another, or<br />

against the employer, the allegation<br />

needs to be sufficiently<br />

detailed so that an employer<br />

can ascertain whether it actually<br />

constitutes bullying. Just<br />

because an employee states<br />

they feel bullied, does not necessarily<br />

make it so.<br />

In February 2017, Worksafe<br />

published a guide entitled<br />

“Bullying at Work: Advice for<br />

Workers”. This is available<br />

free of charge online and is<br />

equally useful to employers<br />

and employees as a starting<br />

point. In particular, the guide<br />

sets out at page 5 behaviour<br />

that is, and is not, bullying.<br />

Those aspects of the guidelines<br />

are worth replicating<br />

here in full.<br />

“Workplace bullying is:<br />

• repeated and unreasonable<br />

behaviour directed towards<br />

a worker or a group of<br />

workers that can lead to<br />

physical or psychological<br />

harm.<br />

• Repeated behaviour is persistent<br />

(occurs more than<br />

once) and can involve a<br />

range of actions over time.<br />

• Unreasonable behaviour<br />

means actions that a reasonable<br />

person in the same<br />

circumstances would see as<br />

unreasonable. It includes<br />

victimising, humiliating,<br />

intimidating or threatening<br />

a person.<br />

• Bullying may also include<br />

harassment, discrimination<br />

or violence (see Section 4<br />

of this guide for how these<br />

are dealt with).<br />

Workplace bullying is not:<br />

• one-off or occasional<br />

instances of forgetfulness,<br />

rudeness or tactlessness<br />

• setting high performance<br />

standards<br />

• constructive feedback and<br />

legitimate advice or peer<br />

review<br />

• a manager requiring reasonable<br />

verbal or written<br />

work instructions to be carried<br />

out<br />

• warning or disciplining<br />

workers in line with the<br />

business or undertaking’s<br />

code of conduct<br />

• a single incident of unreasonable<br />

behaviour<br />

• reasonable management<br />

actions delivered in a reasonable<br />

way<br />

• differences in opinion or<br />

personality clashes that do<br />

not escalate into bullying,<br />

harassment or violence.”<br />

So, the first step in dealing<br />

with any complaint of bullying<br />

is to ascertain whether it actually<br />

is. Unquestionably, the<br />

conduct needs to be repeated,<br />

and one-off interchanges<br />

should not be classified as bullying,<br />

although, depending on<br />

the conduct complained of,<br />

they may be classified as misconduct<br />

or serious misconduct.<br />

If the allegations lack<br />

sufficient detail to establish<br />

whether the complained-of<br />

conduct is bullying, then the<br />

complainant should be asked<br />

to provide precise information<br />

of times, places and the nature<br />

of the conduct so a decision<br />

can be made. This information<br />

is required in any event<br />

if the matter is to proceed, and<br />

must be provided to the other<br />

employee when asking them to<br />

attend a disciplinary meeting.<br />

Where the complaint is<br />

from one employee about<br />

another employee, both must<br />

be separately interviewed to<br />

get their views on the matter,<br />

along with any other persons<br />

who may have witnessed the<br />

alleged conduct. Employers<br />

need to check witness<br />

accounts for consistency and<br />

go back to clarify any apparent<br />

inconsistencies, to ensure that<br />

a witness is actually providing<br />

factual information, rather<br />

than just supporting a work<br />

colleague.<br />

Once all the information<br />

has been collected, the<br />

employer is then in a better<br />

position to make the right<br />

decision on how to proceed.<br />

Both the complainant and the<br />

complained-of employee must<br />

be informed of the outcome.<br />

If, after full investigation, the<br />

problem appears to be more<br />

of a personality clash than<br />

actual bullying, then MBIE<br />

provides free mediation services<br />

that can be utilised to try<br />

and improve the relationship.<br />

If the allegations are found to<br />

be bullying, then depending on<br />

the severity of the conduct, the<br />

outcome may be a final written<br />

EMPLOYMENT LAW<br />

> BY ERIN BURKE<br />

Employment lawyer and director at Practica Legal<br />

Email: erin@practicalegal.co.nz phone: 027 459 3375<br />

warning or dismissal.<br />

The problem with unnecessarily<br />

instigating workplace-wide<br />

investigations is<br />

they are reminiscent of the<br />

Salem Witch Trials, where<br />

employees who had not previously<br />

thought they were being<br />

bullied by a disliked colleague,<br />

may suddenly be encouraged<br />

to believe that they are. Disharmony<br />

and dysfunction can<br />

swiftly ensue, and an employer<br />

may find that the investigation<br />

has caused far more harm to<br />

the workplace than good.<br />

Further, be under no illusion<br />

of the cost of these investigations.<br />

They involve interviews<br />

with every employee,<br />

transcripts of the interviews,<br />

Hamilton & <strong>Waikato</strong> Tourism win<br />

accolade for domestic tourism growth<br />

The Hamilton and<br />

<strong>Waikato</strong> region has further<br />

cemented its place<br />

as a tourism destination by<br />

winning a domestic tourism<br />

growth award at the inaugural<br />

Regional Tourism New Zealand<br />

(RTNZ) Awards.<br />

Hamilton & <strong>Waikato</strong> Tourism<br />

was named the <strong>2018</strong> Best<br />

Domestic Tourism Performance<br />

winner in the tier 2<br />

(mid-sized) regional tourism<br />

organisations category.<br />

Sponsored by AA Traveller,<br />

this award recognised the<br />

importance of the domestic<br />

New Zealand tourism market<br />

and the need to nurture and<br />

grow this sector, as well as the<br />

international visitor market.<br />

The award was independently<br />

assessed by AA<br />

Traveller against four metrics<br />

including Net Promoter<br />

Score, average length of say,<br />

overnight visitation and visitor<br />

expenditure from the Monthly<br />

Regional Tourism Estimates<br />

(MRTEs).<br />

Lake Wanaka Tourism<br />

took out the overall award for<br />

the highest domestic tourism<br />

growth across the country<br />

and Queenstown was named<br />

winner for the tier 1 (large)<br />

regional tourism organisation<br />

category.<br />

Neil Gestro, Head of Tourism<br />

Partnerships for AA Travel<br />

& Tourism, congratulated the<br />

Hamilton & <strong>Waikato</strong> team on<br />

the win.<br />

“Hamilton & <strong>Waikato</strong> Tourism’s<br />

results across all four<br />

metrics are commendable and<br />

it was great to see the region<br />

performing so well,” said Mr<br />

Gestro.<br />

Hamilton & <strong>Waikato</strong> Tourism<br />

Chief Executive Jason<br />

Dawson says the win confirms<br />

the region’s position as a leading<br />

visitor destination.<br />

“At the end of August <strong>2018</strong>,<br />

leisure and business tourism<br />

contribute $1.549 billion<br />

annually into the region. However,<br />

it’s the domestic visitors<br />

leading the charge, injecting<br />

$1.184 billion into our regional<br />

economy annually” said Mr<br />

Dawson.<br />

and confirmation by interviewees<br />

that the information<br />

they have provided is correct,<br />

all culminating in a very<br />

lengthy report. While this may<br />

be warranted where the allegations<br />

appear to be widespread<br />

or where the workplace as a<br />

whole has been complained of<br />

as “toxic”, such an investigation<br />

would not be warranted<br />

where the allegations are<br />

only by one employee against<br />

another.<br />

Employers would be better<br />

off using the money towards<br />

something that builds camaraderie<br />

and stronger workplace<br />

relationships, such as an<br />

employee day out or a midyear<br />

Christmas party.<br />

The <strong>2018</strong> Best Domestic Tourism Performance Award winners (from left to right): Graham<br />

Budd from Destination Queenstown, James Helmore from Lake Wanaka Tourism, Neil<br />

Gestro from AA Traveller & Tourism, and Jason Dawson from Hamilton & <strong>Waikato</strong> Tourism.

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