It’s been a very eventful year.
August 2022 saw a brief setback to the anti-bullying movement when CultureSafe NZ Ltd was put into liquidation. CultureSafe was collateral damage in a suspected payroll fraud at a Putaruru rest home years earlier, which led to whistleblower retaliation including severe bullying, and the target becoming a CultureSafe client. This developed into an attack on CultureSafe director Allan Halse personally. Having narrowly avoided bankruptcy, he continues to advocate for bullied employee clients as a sole trader.
Whistleblower retaliation in NSW
Our neglected LinkedIn account got a new lease on life with a 170% increase in connections, to around 1,800. Many of these new connections are international which has given us access to similar researchers, and more exposure for us and them. We reported on the ClubsNSW matter which was the most egregious whistleblower retaliation effort we have ever seen. Wikipedia now reports “In February 2023, ClubsNSW discontinued all legal action against Shanks and Stolz. The withdrawal of the court cases came after the chief executive of ClubsNSW, Josh Landis, was sacked”. We understand the matters were settled in mediation, and cashless pokies (which should reduce laundering of drug money) are on the way thanks to former ClubsNSW AML compliance manager Troy Stolz, and the NSW Premier’s support.
Smear campaign
In October 2022, British solicitor Caroline Sawyer was the subject of a smear campaign by the New Zealand Law Society. That may have started after she resigned from the Bar, expressing frustration at its enabling of legal mechanisms, such as Section 149, that allowed money laundering. Why do we care? Because she was a mentor of the future research leader of Leighton Associates. As far as we’re concerned, Dr Sawyer’s last few years (of a total of 11) in Aotearoa will be defined by that, not by the smear campaign, the bill for it, or the serious wrongdoing other lawyers wanted to cover up.
Campaign to regulate employment advocates
A campaign to have employment advocates regulated, modeled on regulation of immigration advisors introduced in 2011 stepped up in the second half of 2022. Similarly, the Auckland District Law Society lobbied to have advocates banned from representing clients in the Employment Court. We suggested (as Sawyer did) that the privilege of mediation can be abused for nefarious purposes and even facilitate procurement fraud. Both campaigns ultimately failed. Advocates can still apply to become members of ELINZ or AMINZ, both private incorporated societies, and abide by their code of conduct, but membership is not compulsory.
Trizzy’s book club
We plugged books by new connections Jackie Garrick (Whistleblowers of America), Nick Wallis (UK Post Office scandal) and Nathan Lynch (money laundering in Australia, including the ClubsNSW debacle).
Bogus SLAPP = BLAPP
Our biggest story from the outset, Bay of Plenty DHB v Shaw (retaliatory proceedings that outlived the personal grievance proceedings and are also bogus), has gone quiet. Maybe the matter was caught between costs weaponisation and the threat of unwelcome international attention under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). National Business Review got a handle on this complex case in February while attending a short Employment Court hearing that we were also at, and NBR’s subsequent article suggested that our reputation as a skilled migrant destination could be damaged. We think that’s what has caused those proceedings to stall.
WAMS unmasked
In May the Workplace Assurance Model Standards under the Public Service Act 2020 was mentioned, though not by name, in a determination of the Employment Relations Authority. Blacklisting within the public sector was alluded to, and soon after we figured out what the legal mechanism was, we managed to intercept another blacklisting campaign against a prison nurse before it turned into a personal grievance claim. The nurse had been advised against raising a grievance and to decline offers to attend mediation, in order to preserve her rights of free speech as she works to restore her reputation. If there’s no mediation, there’s no secret pressure for a Record of Settlement (Section 149) and therefore no non-disparagement clause. And that could mean a day of reckoning for former colleagues who blacklisted her, especially if an internal investigation finds evidence of malice!
A long overdue outbreak of SLAPP-awareness
In April, and again in June, Judge Kathryn Beck of the Employment Court attributed the legal term “SLAPP” to a matter, the first in New Zealand’s employment jurisdiction to do so. SLAPPs (strategic litigation against public participation) are retaliatory proceedings, banned in most American States. The June decision, which was similar to an interlocutory, cited a 2021 Honours dissertation on SLAPPs. Lucille Reece, now a trainee solicitor, excitedly posted a screenshot of the relevant part of the judgment on LinkedIn and got quite a few likes – more than 1,800 in fact. Progress to Health had brought a SLAPP against a former employee, and after investigating it we felt confident enough to declare it dead in the water, trapped between costs weaponisation (like BOP DHB), and a dismayed regulatory body.
Grunge
Despite the wealth of technical nerdy research material coming our way over the last year, the highlight for me was co-writing an industry-relevant song called Sock Puppet One Star Review. Enjoy!
Ngā mihi nui,
Tristam
Research leader