19 April 2024
Erika Whittome
[FYI request #24993 email]
Tēnā koe Erika,
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00033341
Thank you for your email on 4 December 2023, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora for the
following under the Of icial Information Act 1982 (the Act):
The Employment Relations Authority has many determinations for staff who were
terminated from their jobs due to vaccine mandates in which you and other DHBs are the
respondent for these cases.
Regarding vaccine mandates, Clause 7 of schedule 3A of the Employment Relations Act
200 confirms that there is nothing which prevents "an employee whose employment
agreement is terminated under subclause (3) from bringing a personal grievance or legal
proceedings in respect of the dismissal".
Would you please share the costs to date of all legal costs responding to vaccine mandate
claims in the Employment Relations Authority and in the Employment Court? Please
include any disbursements as well, eg travel, accommodation, meals etc to any third party
legal workers. Please include the costs for all claims that have commenced in the ERA and
Employment court to date.
Response
Legal claims in the Employment Relations Authority and Employment Court, as they relate to the
COVID-19 vaccination mandate were handled by the former District Health Boards (DHBs). Not all
former DHBs had legal claims, but for the DHBs that did, Health NZ has paid approximately
$272,000 in legal costs responding to the COVID-19 vaccine claims. This figure only includes legal
costs and does not include any set lement amounts. There are stil ongoing claims, so this figure is
subject to change.
Please note that this information has been manual y collated and is not part of regular reporting.
The figures collected through manual collation are done so to the best of our ability and as such,
the data should be considered an indication only.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. Al requester data, including your name and
contact details, wil be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Danielle Coe
Manager (OIA) Government Services
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wel ington 6140, New Zealand
