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Last of the woke employment litigation meanders through the Employment Court

Updated: Jan 15



Treat yourselves to a guilt-free contemptuous chuckle, readers, by joining us in the strange Hamilton City Council v Halse litigation journey at the four-year mark.


On 14 January 2021 we published Dragging up the ancient past:


"Hamilton City Council is suing former employee Allan Halse for allegedly breaching a non-disparagement clause in a settlement agreement. The original dispute officially ended on 14 February 2014, the date of a completed mediation.


Soon after leaving the Council, Mr Halse went into the employment advocacy business. In late 2020, Mr Halse, through his company Culturesafe NZ Ltd, was engaged by a client who happened to be an employee of Hamilton City Council.


He described what he believed to be a severe workplace bullying problem, on Culturesafe’s Facebook page. The Council, aware of his previous employment with it, got his HR file, dug out a Record of Settlement from the 2014 mediation, looked at the non-disparagement clause therein, and initiated a claim in the ERA…”


Halse was fined $9,000 (£4,000) by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA, similar to the British ET) on 9 February 2022.  By this time, CEO Richard Briggs who presumably signed off on the litigation had left the Council, which meant that his successor Lance Vervoort was left holding the bag.


Halse’s company was also fined $9,000, but the company was put into liquidation six months later, so we can disregard that.  Halse challenged the penalty to the Employment Court.


Nearly three years after the determination, the challenge meanders on in a somewhat zombified state.  Let’s unpack this: the ERA, which not a court but is part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), imposed a $9,000 fine disparaging a Council (in the context of anti-workplace bullying advocacy), with the fine payable to MBIE – unless Halse’s challenge succeeds.


The latest development is that on 5 December 2024 the Court ordered Halse to pay $1,000 to a former business associate Joanne Thomson as reimbursement for the time likely to be spent collating records that Halse needs to support his challenge.  Judge Holden did not accept Halse’s contention that Thomson’s job should take “five minutes”, however the $1,000 reimbursement ordered was modest and Halse provided evidence that he paid it the same day.


This nickel and dime interlocutory judgment which we have linked back to as evidence that the proceedings are ongoing, cements the legacy of the Council’s precious, high-handed and long-departed wokesters.  The litigation, very much a product of its time, is currently being maintained as a cronyism-driven cash cow of sorts.    


In a late 2024 LinkedIn comment the seemingly flustered Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate denied responsibility for the Halse matter and asserted that such matters are the responsibility of the CEO (Vervoort).


Have you had enough, Hamilton readers?


Ain’t my rates being spent soothing ruffled feathers, but I sympathise.

 

Tristam Price

Lower Hutt



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