In February 2022 Hamilton employment advocate Allan Halse was ordered to pay a $9,000 fine to MBIE for disparaging Hamilton City Council and disclosing the existence of a settlement agreement signed on 14 February 2014, a month after the Council dismissed the former property manager for being a whistleblower.
Halse’s company Culturesafe NZ Limited, incorporated on 27 February 2014 was also fined $9,000 but it was liquidated six months later by Rangiura Trust Board which operates a rest home, in a dispute that’s ongoing. Halse continues to advocate for bullied employee clients as a sole trader under the name Hamilton Culturesafe.
Paragraph 28 of the determination by the Employment Relations Authority lets him off telling his Facebook followers that he was dismissed in January 2014 because his dismissal was already reported by media.
"I am satisfied the fact of Mr Halse’s dismissal was already in the public domain prior to the parties’ execution of the settlement agreement, and I therefore am unwilling to find that those posts which make reference to his dismissal breached the settlement agreement.”
Phew, that was lucky! What does Paragraph 29 say?
"I must find however, that the existence of the settlement agreement itself is caught by the confidentiality provision, and there is no real dispute that at least seven of the posts make specific reference to the settlement agreement…”
Like the NZ Herald did on 21 February 2014, Member Ryan?
Oops, how embarrassing!
There was also that small matter of the Record Of Settlement (ROS) that got shredded when it was seven years old. To enforce it, either the Council or MBIE allegedly had to breach Halse’s privacy to get a soft copy into the proceedings. It worked, and Halse and his company were fined 90% of the maximum allowable. This was reported by local media but we see that Brazilian media was impressed for the wrong reasons.
For a while we thought that Halse was planning to challenge the determination of the Employment Relations Authority to the Employment Court, which is how it’s usually done. But he’s actually applied to have the determination quashed, on the grounds of the Council failing to file a Statement of Defence.
Maybe they were too busy doing real council work?