Firefighters Union calls for independent inquiry into FENZ's complaints process

RNZ News

3 days ago

FENZ chief executive & national commander Kerry Gregory.
Photo:
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The Professional Firefighters' Union is calling for independent inquiry by the Auditor General into Fire and Emergency New Zealand's complaints process.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) has apologised unreservedly to a former volunteer firefighter for failing to properly investigate a series of complaints.
It has been nearly 10 years since Sarah Hullah made her first complaint to FENZ about sexual harassment.
Now an 111-page independent report by Simon Mount KC, released on Wednesday, details 33 failings by FENZ over the way it handled her initial complaint, and several after that.
These include failure to comply with its own processes, conflicts of interest, unreasonable delays, and a failure to learn from at least two previous, highly critical external reviews.
FENZ chief executive and national commander Kerry Gregory said significant changes to the way complaints were managed had been made, including introducing an independent service that specialises in conflict resolution and complaint management.
However, The Professional Firefighters Union secretary Wattie Watson told
Nine to Noon
that nothing had changed and Fire and Emergency's complaints system was neither independent, nor fair.
"Many, many, many of those 33 findings of that report are still occurring today," she said.
She said the Union was now calling for a proper inquiry into what has occurred.
"The report into Sarah's case is a very good springboard for that because it shows - particularly from 2019 onwards - no matter what FENZ has put in place it has not worked, and it has not changed the fairness in the workplace whatsoever," she said.
The Union wanted something similar to an Auditor General Inquiry.
"There needs to be a really robust inquiry, I'd be interested to know what FENZ has spent on trying to not deal with Sarah's case.
"We need an inquiry because this is utter mismanagement. The CEO and the Board need to be held to account, and the staff and volunteers at FENZ deserve a fair process to have their matters addressed," she said.
National Secretary of the Professional Fire Fighters' Union Wattie Watson.
Photo:
Supplied/ Nudo Group
The union had previously believed that FENZ could manage its own complaints process, but Watson said this report confirmed they could not and should not.
"We now believe it has to be a completely independent external body to handle that process, and mainly because of the protections that are going on in management," Watson said.
Watson said one of the key problems was that many of those working at FENZ were inexperienced because the bulk of employees were firefighters.
"We have cases currently where the head of finance is going to be making a decision on whether the actions of someone in a hot fire situation acted appropriately in how they interacted with someone else at the scene," she said.
Watson said the Union has no faith in FENZ and if an employee or volunteer makes a complaint against someone in higher management or high leadership, then they won't have a fair and proper process.
"We have experience where there are managers that are subject to repeated complaints and are never investigated, in fact they are protected.
"We have situations where management have coerced, pressured or put unreasonable restriction in place - particularly by a refusal to manage conflicts of interest, to make sure those complaints don't go anywhere else.
"We've got examples where people have complained about the behaviours of managers, relatively high level managers, and yet they've ended up with disciplinary action against them," Watson said.
FENZ chief executive and national commander Kerry Gregory said
he apologised
"publicly and unreservedly to Ms Hullah for the failure to properly investigate".
He said FENZ had accepted all 33 findings, and separately, reached a resolution with Hullah.
The organisation continued to work on a programme to change its culture, "to create a safer, more positive and inclusive environment for all our people. We are striving to become a different organisation".
Already, significant changes had been made to how complaints were managed, including introducing an independent service that specialises in conflict resolution and complaint management.
"Bullying, harassment and victimisation have no place in Fire and Emergency, and we take all allegations of any such behaviour very seriously. I am committed to creating an environment where everyone feels safe, and that any complaints are handled appropriately," he said.
"I am confident that if complaints like those addressed in the review occurred today, they would be handled through a more robust and transparent process."
He would not be drawn on whether people found at fault, whose names had been redacted from the report, had been moved out of their positions within FENZ.
"The people involved haven't been given the tools to do it well, and the process didn't support them to do that well, so anyone who was involved through the 10-year period who may or may not still be in the organisation, wasn't necessarily well supported by the organisation as a whole."
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