Employment Relations (Extended Time for Personal Grievance for Sexual Harassment) Amendment Bill

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s my privilege to speak on the third reading of this, the Employment Relations (Extended Time for Personal Grievance for Sexual Harassment) Amendment Bill.

National is supporting this bill. What it does is it seeks to extend the time for an employee to raise a personal grievance alleging sexual harassment from the current 90 days’ time limit to a year. People who don’t follow this particular area of law might be puzzled by this, but, in essence, if a relationship at work breaks down and an employee seeks a personal grievance against their employer, which is an appropriate sort of process, there is a time limit around that which is 90 days—so three months. That’s in place so that employers and, particularly, small-business owners don’t have the potential for some kind of claim against them hanging over their heads for years to sort of reappear, say, five years later—that they’re unhappy with the way that they were dealt with. So that sort of statute of limitations, as it were, of 90 days is in effect.

But the point has been made, and I think quite well and quite strongly, by the member responsible for this bill, Dr Deborah Russell, that allegations involving sexual harassment are a unique category in the sense that it is a very difficult thing to deal with and often takes a long time for people to, sort of, think over it, to process it, and then to be in the position to raise it as an issue. That’s why the case has been made for giving more time for that process to evolve and, indeed, giving people a year.

I think everybody in this House is conscious of the terrible impact that sexual harassment can have in the workplace. Many, in fact, will have experienced some example of that. Nobody should have to go to work and face any kind of sexual harassment. So the law is clear in this area, but this is an area that we can come together as a House, as a Parliament, to pass legislation that will, I think, help—let’s not hope many cases, because this is not something we want to see in our workplaces anywhere, but it may well indeed help many cases where people have faced sexual harassment in the workplace and had to deal with it.

Now, there was lots of debate about elements of it. There was a desire to extend it further, beyond sexual harassment, to a much wider, broader category of bullying and to change that threshold. That wasn’t appropriate within the scope of this legislation. There were some who wanted it to be more than one year, but five years, or to have no limit, and we were still conscious of the need for some sense of certainty, particularly for the small-business owners who have to try and get on with their business. So I think where we’ve landed is sensible and it will make a small difference. On that basis, I commend this bill to the House, and congratulate the member for bringing it and for its passage in this Parliament. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a real privilege to be able to stand here and take the final call in the third reading of the Employment Relations (Extended Time for Personal Grievance for Sexual Harassment) Amendment Bill.

First of all, I would like to commend everyone who has worked on the progress of this bill, and especially, of course, my good friend and colleague the Hon Dr Deborah Russell, who had the good fortune to have a great bill drawn out of the tin but then entrusted me with the final stages of getting this bill through the House in its last stage.

It’s also my good fortune to stand here today, because it’s a double celebration: it is my birthday. So may I take the opportunity to extend a shout-out to my parents and say: meeting you has been the best moment of my life.

It was a real privilege to chair the Education and Workforce Committee at the time when they had to consider the 43 submissions on this bill. This bill took slightly longer to go through the House because there was the need to go to a recommittal stage and clarify the need for some transitional provisions through a Supplementary Order Paper. That was necessary to make it clear that there was no need for employers to update every single existing employment agreement to comply with the new law.

So the previous speaker has already explained what this bill does: it makes a minor change to the Employment Relations Act. But while it’s minor on paper, it has the potential to be very significant for people who otherwise would not complain. The problem that this bill deals with is that in the current situation, an employee who wishes to raise a personal grievance with allegations of sexual harassment has a time period of 90 days to do so, and this particular bill extends that to 12 months, as has been explained. The previous speaker, Paul Goldsmith, explained really well, I think, what that process of a personal grievance is.

The change that this bill makes acknowledges that a period of 90 days to raise a grievance is not really reflective of the way sexual harassment plays out in practice, and that was a point that was made very well by many of our submitters and, in particular, also by Simon Schofield, a former member of the Auckland District Law Society Employment Law Committee who teaches employment law at the University of Auckland. Extending the time recognises the special nature of sexual harassment. The Hon Dr Deborah Russell spoke about it in her second reading speech, and I would like to actually quote her. What she said is that “The reason [sexual harassment] can be traumatising is because the person who experiences it is disregarded, … treated as an object, and is treated as being of no worth—or, if they have worth, it is only their sexual value that matters.” I think that really puts a very fine point on that matter.

I join other members of this House who have spoken of personal experiences. People spoke about how they remembered exactly what they were wearing, where they were, what was being said, and they remember, still, even if it’s many, many years later, how it made them feel. I too remember a time really clearly where I was made to feel very uncomfortable, disrespected, and powerless by the sexual innuendo of a senior co-worker. It was a long time ago but, exactly like previous speakers have said, you still remember exactly what was said. There was no physical behaviour in any way, and it was almost like a throwaway comment for the person, who probably thought it was a funny joke they were making, but it actually made me feel really bad. This incident happened many years before there was even a Me Too movement, and perhaps it happened, because, at that time, that sort of behaviour was almost normalised, but it is not OK. My colleague Helen White spoke about it in her contribution very eloquently. She said: “[the need] to examine some of the damage that we do to people when we do things we think are innocent but are not. They hurt people.”

So it’s really good to see that there is a changing attitude to this issue. It’s clearly reflected in the very respectful and bipartisan way that this bill has gone through the House. That’s really important because to achieve lasting cultural change, there needs to be a collective ownership of the need to change culture and attitudes and to establish common values. We all have a right to feel respected in a workplace.

But this bill is also important in light of gender equality. With the worldwide backlash against women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality is being eroded. There is a long road ahead to achieve gender equality. The time to act and invest in women and girls is now.

As I said previously, this bill makes a small improvement but it has large implications. So I would like to finish my contribution by thanking all of those who worked on this bill, all the parties around the Education and Workforce Committee for their very collaborative approach. I acknowledge, as many others have, Zoë Lawton for her relentless advocacy for a change in the law, and bringing this matter to the attention of the Hon Dr Deborah Russell, who took the work forward. I thank my colleagues around the House for what Mr Speaker earlier in this debate referred to as collegial lawmaking. Most importantly, immense thanks must go to all those who courageously shared their stories to make sure that the voices of the victims were heard. It is good to see that it is not only the 50 percent of women in this House of Representatives that support this bill but it actually has unanimous support. So I’m happy and proud to commend this bill to the House. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a third time.