Office of the Vice-Chancellor
Phone +64 7 837 9472
The University of Waikato
www.waikato.ac.nz
Private Bag 3105
Hamilton 3240
New Zealand
8 April 2022
Allan Halse
Director
CultureSafe NZ Ltd
Email
: [FYI request #18860 email]
Dear Allan
Official Information request – Personal Grievance and Bullying
I refer to your request for official information dated 14 March 2022 where you requested
information on the University’s total cost of external lawyers in personal grievance/bullying
cases for the past five years.
In accordance with the Official Information Act 1982 (
OIA) the University of Waikato
(
University) has given due consideration to your request and responds as follows:
Retrieval of this data set is administratively challenging for the University. For the University
to address this request it would require a substantial amount of coordination and data
collation within the University. There may also be some information which does not exist.
The University believes that to collate and research this information it would require the
University’s HR function to allocate specific resource to peruse every HR file to identify any
instances of personal grievance or bullying. Given the sensitive nature of personal grievance
and bullying cases it would probably not be appropriate for a junior member of the HR team
to have access to this level of information so would require a senior member of the HR team
to undertake this part of the exercise, thereby diverting them away from their day to day
responsibilities. Arguably this could have an impact on the HR function’s ability to carry out
its operations. Resource from the Finance department would then need to be allocated (with
input from HR) to identify whether external costs were incurred by the University and to
identify the amount of the costs for each personal grievance or bullying case. This exercise
would need to be undertaken for all HR files over the five-year period.
As the coordination and collation of this data set over a five-year period is an administrative
challenge for the University, the University has given due consideration whether to consult
with you and if it should grant an extension of the timeframe in which it is required to respond
to this request.
The University has also given due consideration to whether charging for the costs of data
collation and research would enable the request to be met. Due to the impact on the
University’s HR function and to a lesser extent the Finance function to retrieve this
information, the University considers it reasonable to charge you for the costs of the collation
and research of this information. The University estimates that the number of hours it would
take dedicated resource to retrieve this data would be 120 and as the University is able to
charge $76 per hour the cost to you would be circa $9000.00. Before we proceed further with
your request, please confirm your agreement to the charge. You will be required to pay the
full amount up front and the University will provide details on how that payment can be made
at that time.
We would also like to highlight that the University considers that some of the information
requested may not exist or is not able to be ascertained in some circumstances. Please bear in
mind that even if you pay the collation costs the University is only required to provide what
information can be identified. Information that requires the University to apply complex skill,
judgement or interpretation would not be provided as the University has no obligation to
create new information.
Therefore, the University has decided to grant your request (to the extent the information
exists), subject to you paying the full amount up front of the University’s collation and research
costs.
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
Jim Mercer
Chief Operating Officer
