Work Place Bullying Public Meeting

CultureSafe Christchurch are hosting a public meeting on Workplace Bullying. 4 speakers; Meng Foon, Allan Halse, Jane Barnes &Vicki Turner.

About this event:
Workplace bullying is "endemic" across New Zealand, which has the second-worst such culture in the developed world, and governments have ignored calls to change it for years.

CultureSafeNZ supports people experiencing workplace bullying, and its director Allan Halse has lobbied the government for years but has been ignored.

"We've been lobbying them for years and years about changing the bullying culture in New Zealand and they've ignored us basically, and we've gone to them with proposals.

"We've told them what needs to happen and we're the lead anti-workplace bullying organisation in New Zealand and the last three years we've won the three biggest payouts at the employment relations authority in workplace bullying cases so we know what we're talking about.

"Absolutely ignored, still am. In five-and-a-half years trying to get interviews with the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety we've only once got to meet with him." Allan says. "I met with Iain Lees-Galloway and eight of his government officials in February back in February and as a result of that he wanted me to work with his officials... what they say to me is 'oh we're looking at doing something next year'.

"I'm saying 'people are dying, we've got thousands of people entering the mental health system every year because of abuse in the workplace, in the form of workplace bullying and sexual harassment, and you're doing nothing about it'... worse still, government departments that we're involved with - CultureSafe has got probably more than 100 clients - probably 50 percent of those are working in organisations that are taxpayer funded and the taxpayer is paying for the bullying to be condoned."
He says workplace bullying in New Zealand is the second worst across the developed world, and the revelations from Ms Francis' report are not surprising.

"We deal with hundreds of cases of workplace bullying every year including sexual harassment, and that's common across public service, DHBs, local government. It's endemic across New Zealand ... no surprises but really pleased to see the report was so open and so blunt."