Human Rights Commission 'fell short' in sexual harassment scandal - employment lawyer

Tuesday, 13 February 2018

Human Rights Commission chief financial officer Kyle Stutter faced disciplinary action for sexually harassing a young intern.

The Human Rights Commission failed to follow best practice in its handling of a sexual harassment scandal, an employment lawyer says.

On Sunday, Stuff revealed a young American woman cut short her internship at the commission after she was groped by the organisation's chief financial officer at a work party.

Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue, Chief Commissioner David Rutherford, Race Relations Commissioner Susan Devoy, and Disability Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoriero.

The commission investigated a sexual harassment complaint against Kyle Stutter, which resulted in disciplinary action. However, three months on, he remains employed there as chief financial officer. He threatened to sue Stuff if he was identified.

The commission is the country's watchdog for unlawful discrimination and racial or sexual harassment. But the former intern said it seemed ill-equipped to deal with Stutter targeting her, and it didn't acknowledge the seriousness of the incident.

Employment lawyer Peter Cullen says the commission didn't follow best practice.

National's justice and workplace relations spokesperson, Amy Adams, is calling on Minister of Justice Andrew Little to investigate.

* Human Rights Commission finance boss sexually harasses young intern, keeps job

* Alison Mau: The HRC should do better**

Employment lawyer Peter Cullen said the commission had not followed best practice in its handling of the incident.

'I think the behaviour of the person let the Human Rights Commission down, because it should be a role model both of behaviour and best practice. Obviously what happened fell far short of that,' Cullen said.

Cullen took issue with an email Stutter sent to all staff at the commission's Auckland office following the incident, naming the intern and saying what happened was not in keeping with the Commission's values. In the email, Stutter also said he was deeply sorry. He advised staff to ask him directly for his account of events if they had any questions.

'I would have thought a better approach would have been for the chief executive to write to staff,' Cullen said of the email.

'He should have only named the victim if they agreed - although everyone may know in a small office anyway - and not have been inviting people to hear someone's side of the story, because I don't think that's helpful.

'Putting him in the position of sending it out puts him in a bit of a position of power in handling it, whereas I would have thought that was better from the chief executive.'

Cullen added, 'it is positive to see [the commission is] looking at how they handled it, presumably wanting to improve it or see if they could have done better'.

Kyle Stutter answers to the commission's chief executive, Cynthia Brophy, who in turn answers to four commissioners: Chief Commissioner David Rutherford, Race Relations Commissioner Susan Devoy, Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue, and Disability Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoriero.

On Tuesday, none of the commissioners had responded to repeated requests for comment on the incident.

The former intern said on Tuesday she appreciated messages of support and encouragement from former co-workers over the past few days.

'Several colleagues and people I know through work associations have contacted to express their concern and let me know they're there for me in any way if needed,' said the 26-year-old.

'They've also said they're proud of my bravery and horrified at what happened, and sorry they didn't know to prevent it somehow.'

National's spokesperson for justice and workplace relations, Amy Adams, described the incident as 'extremely concerning,' and called for a full report.

'Any sexual harassment allegation is a particularly bad look for the Human Rights Commission,' Adams said.

'You would want any employee to feel safe in their workplace. When you add in the extra dimension that this is the Human Rights Commission - the watchdog across society of appropriate behaviour and respecting people's innate rights as human beings - that does of course mean they have a higher standard that they're expected to uphold.

'I think they're going to have to consider very carefully whether they've done everything they could in this case to protect the victim, to keep a safe workplace and then to act appropriately after it was brought to their attention.'

Adams said if she were still the minister of justice, she would be requesting a 'very detailed report' from the commission.

'While obviously this is an employment matter, given that you are talking about the Human Rights Commission, and some very serious allegations, I would certainly want to know in more detail exactly how it was handled.

'If there is any suggestion that it hasn't been handled appropriately, then I think the minister will have to be asking questions about what steps will be put in place to go into that in more detail and prevent it happening again.'

A spokesperson for Justice Minister Andrew Little, who oversees the commission, said on Tuesday he had so far been unable to comment on the incident as he was in Iraq.

However, Little would receive a full briefing when he was back in the country.

The spokesperson was unable to say exactly when Little would be back, but confirmed it would be a matter of days.