4 November 2019
45 Pipitea Street, Thorndon, Wellington 6011
Phone +64 4 495 7200
Fax +64 4 382 3589
Lesley Harbern
Em
ail [email address]
C/- fyi.org.nz
Websi
te www.dia.govt.nz
[FYI request #11388 email]
Dear Lesley
Your Official Information Act request OIA 1920 - 0296
I write regarding your Official Information Act (the Act) request, which was received by the
Department of Internal Affairs (the Department) on 7 October 2019.
You have requested:
I am interested in employment equity and fairness
Please quantify your gender paygap (if possible not just binary male-female but
incorporating other gender identifications too). Please also give numbers of your
employees are of which genders at each tier of your hierarchy.
Please also provide the same information regarding the other following demographics
(to the extent that it is held, it is understood that you may not have all of this data):
Marital status
Religious belief
Ethical belief
Ethnic origins
National origins
Disability
age
Political opinion
Employment status immediately prior to be employed by yourselves Sexual orientation
Physical appearance/body type characteristics
Please explain what you are doing to actively address any disparities in any of these
areas.
Please explain how you go about preventing and combating conscious discrimination
and prejudice in these areas.
Please explain how you go about preventing and combating unconscious discrimination
and prejudice in these areas.
Please be aware that providing policy documents that state these discriminations and
prejudices are not acceptable does not constitute an answer to these queries. Policy
documents are not action. What actual actions are you taking.
Please explain how you go about preventing and combating wrongful interpersonal
behaviour such as workplace bullying and harassment even if it is not specific to any of
these demographics.
Please provide for the last seven years how many complaints of conscious or
unconscious discrimination, bullying, harassment, sexual harassment have been made.
Also please provide the number of times people raised these incidents but did not lodge
a formal complaint.
Please explain how many of these cases were investigated and whether they were
investigated by your own people or external parties. Please explain how you decide if
an internal or external person is suitably qualified and skilled and has the integrity
needed for the investigation.
Please explain what actions have been taken against the perpetrators whose actions
gave rise to the complaints.
Response to your request
The responses to your request are provided below.
Please quantify your gender paygap (if possible not just binary male-female but
incorporating other gender identifications too). Please also give numbers of your employees
are of which genders at each tier of your hierarchy.
As at 30 September 2019, the Department’s gender pay gap was 12.9%. The Department
does not collect and therefore record non-binary gender information. We are therefore
refusing this part of your request under Section 18(g) of the Act as the information
requested is not held by the Department.
The number of employees by tier and gender is:
Tier
2
3
4
5
6
7
8/9
Total
Female
6
34
121
352
750
252
17
1532
Male
6
26
89
203
400
162
9
895
Unknown
1
3
4
3
11
Total
12
60
211
558
1154
417
26
2438
Please also provide the same information regarding the other following demographics (to the
extent that it is held, it is understood that you may not have all of this data):
Marital status, religious belief, ethical belief, ethnic origins, national origins, disability, age,
political opinion, employment status immediately prior to be employed by yourselves, sexual
orientation, physical appearance/body type characteristics.
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Information on employees ethnic origin and disability are provided in the table below:
Asian
European
Māori
MELAA
Pacific
Other
Unknown Disability
Female
189
1036
139
20
205
34
66
58
Male
94
648
57
20
67
30
50
24
Unknown
0
7
0
0
1
0
3
Total
283
1691
196
40
273
64
119
82
To note: employees may choose up to two ethnicities.
Information on employees by age grouping is provided in the table below:
Age groupings
18 - 29
30 - 39
40 - 49
50 - 59
60 - 69
>69 Unknown
Total
Female
359
358
355
285
125
16
34
1532
Male
162
196
204
189
103
9
32
895
Unknown
3
2
3
1
2
11
Total
521
557
561
477
229
25
68
2438
The Department does not collect data on marital status, religious belief, ethical belief,
national origins, political opinion, employment status immediately prior to be employed by
yourselves, sexual orientation, physical appearance/body type characteristics. We are
therefore refusing this part of your request under Section 18(g) of the Act as the information
requested is not held by the Department.
Please explain what you are doing to actively address any disparities in any of these areas.
The Department’s Branch Senior Leadership Teams regularly receive and review reports on
the diversity information of their branch. Branches have developed gender pay gap action
plans to focus on reducing the gender pay gap and increasing diversity. The Department
encourages managers to think about the diversity of their team during recruitment including
placing advertisements on diverse job boards, ensuring diversity in their selection panels and
ensuring diversity when shortlisting candidates for interview.
Please explain how you go about preventing and combating conscious discrimination and
prejudice in these areas. Please explain how you go about preventing and combating
unconscious discrimination and prejudice in these areas. Please be aware that providing
policy documents that state these discriminations and prejudices are not acceptable does not
constitute an answer to these queries. Policy documents are not action. What actual actions
are you taking.
As part of our inclusion and diversity approach the Department has developed an Inclusive
Leadership (unconscious bias) workshop which is part of leadership training for managers.
This workshop looks at the impact that unconscious bias can have, and on strategies that can
be used to minimise bias and increase inclusiveness with an emphasis on recruitment. All
managers are actively encouraged to attend this workshop.
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Please explain how you go about preventing and combating wrongful interpersonal
behaviour such as workplace bullying and harassment even if it is not specific to any of these
demographics.
The Department’s Code of Conduct sets out the minimum standards of behaviour required
from everyone who works for or with the Department. We have a range of Speaking Up
policies and resources to support employees who wish to raise an issue about inappropriate
behaviour which includes bullying and harassment. Employees can make anonymous
submissions to the Chief Executive (CE) through a confidential CE feedback form. The
Department is currently updating its Managing Unacceptable Behaviour Policy.
As part of an ongoing uplift in resources to encourage people to speak up and support them
when they do, the Department is soon to run a pilot peer-to-peer support network. This will
be an alternate channel for employees to discuss confidential issues with an independent
person.
Please provide for the last seven years how many complaints of conscious or unconscious
discrimination, bullying, harassment, sexual harassment have been made. Also please
provide the number of times people raised these incidents but did not lodge a formal
complaint.
There have been 31 reported issues of bullying and six reported incidents of harassment
over the last seven years.
The Department does not currently record incidents which are not lodged as a formal
complaint. We are therefore refusing this part of your request under Section 18(g) of the Act
as the information requested is not held by the Department.
Please explain how many of these cases were investigated and whether they were
investigated by your own people or external parties. Please explain how you decide if an
internal or external person is suitably qualified and skilled and has the integrity needed for
the investigation.
Of the incidents raised over the last seven years, 15 cases were investigated by external
parties, and no cases were investigated by internal parties. To undertake investigations the
Department uses independent skilled investigators, employment specialists or for more
complex cases we may use an employment lawyer. Who we use for a particular case
depends on the complexity, nature and sensitivity of the complaint. At times we may also
seek advice about an investigator from our legal representatives.
Please explain what actions have been taken against the perpetrators whose actions gave
rise to the complaints.
Due to the small numbers involved and to protect the privacy of individuals we are unable to
provide further information on the actions taken against people. We are therefore refusing
this part of your request under Section 9(2)(a) of the Act on the grounds that it is necessary
to protect the privacy of natural persons.
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If you have any feedback or questions about the Department’s response, please let us know
at [email address].
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz
or Freephone 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Lesa Kalapu
General Manager
Pūmanawa Tangata – Human Resources
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