Employer’s failure to identify new complaint by employee breached duty of good faith
In Mowat v Christchurch Boys’ High School Board of Trustees [2025] NZERA 855, the Employment Relations Authority awarded $25,000 to Mrs Mowat, a former teacher at Christchurch Boy’s High School to compensate for humiliation, loss of dignity, and injury to feelings for unjustifiable disadvantage due to how a complaint was managed by the Board of Trustees.
Mowat made concerns known to the Board of Trustees in accordance with the relevant complaints policy. The Board in its response stated “…we do not intend to re-litigate or provide any further response to issues that have previously been responded….” The concerns were not on the findings of an investigation in early 2019. They regarded conduct by the Principal and Board during the investigation and since.
The Authority considered this “shutdown” approach to have caused disadvantage in her employment. The Authority found that the concerns raised should have been recognised as a complaint under the Board’s own policy, triggering an obligation to respond. The Board did not adequately address Mowat’s concerns. This failure fell short of the Board’s statutory duty of good faith under the Employment Relations Act 2000. They failed to recognise her concerns, which substantively acted as a complaint under the complaints process. This continued in further interactions such as continuing to refer Mowat to the complaints process and claim that matters...
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