29 April 2025
R Holmes
By email
to: [FYI request #30539 email]
Dear R Holmes
OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT REQUEST 2025/18
On the evening of Wednesday 26 March, you made a request under the Official Information Act
1982 (the OIA) for the following information:
Between the 2020 general election (Jan 2021) and now (Q3 2025) how many permanent or
fixed term staff (excluding those temporary staff hired for elections) have
1. Participated in "without prejudice" conversations resulting in them being exited from the
Commission along with a settlement agreement
2. Rasied personal grievances that were processed through the ERA
Please provide a breakdown by department/business unit by quarter if available and by year
otherwise, accepting that 2025 figures will be partial
What was the nature of these complaints.
A table grouped by department will likely be the best way to represent your answers.
What was the financial cost of these settlements/exits and separately what was the cost of
external legal and HR related advise.
Finally what is the staff turnover rate by department by quarter (Jan 2021 to March 2025 -
2025 so far). You can provide annual rates if you do not have them quarterly.
To calculate staff turnover rate, divide the number of employees who left a department
during the period by the average number of employees (excluding the temp election hires)
during that period, then multiply by 100 to express it as a percentage. Your HR department
will likely have an easily accessible answer to this. Please provide by department/business
unit taking the equivalent department/business unit into account when a restructure impacts
the figures.
We have provided answers to your questions below.
During Jan 2021 and Q3 2025, there has been one employee who has participated in a without
prejudice conversation resulting in them being exited from the Commission along with a settlement
agreement. There were two personal grievances from one employee resulting in one ERA case.
We have not included the settlement costs under section 149 of the Employment Relations Act. The
information is withheld under sections 9(2)(a) and 9(2)(ba) of the OIA on the grounds that the
withholding of the information is necessary to protect the privacy of natural persons and to protect
information which is subject to an obligation of confidence where the making available of the
information would be likely to prejudice the supply of similar information, or information from the
Electoral Commission
Level 4, 34-42 Manners Street, PO Box 3220, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Telephone +64 4 495 0030 Fax +64 4 495 0031
www.vote.nz | www.elections.nz
same source, and it is in the public interest that such information should continue to be supplied; or
would be likely otherwise to damage the public interest. I am satisfied that the reasons for
withholding of the information are not outweighed by other considerations which render it
desirable, in the public interest, to make that information available.
Group
Year
Nature of
Costs
complaint
Without
Operations
2024
Medical
$2,500 in legal
prejudice case
costs
ERA Case
Enterprise
2025
Unjustifiably
$33,417 in legal
Services
disadvantaged
costs
The permanent staff turnover rate has been provided at an organisation level only due to the small
size of the Commission, rather than at a department level. That information is withheld under
section 9(2)(a) of the Official Information Act on the grounds that the withholding of the information
is necessary to protect the privacy of the natural person. I am satisfied that the withholding of the
information is not outweighed by other considerations which render it desirable, in the public
interest, to make that information available.
The financial year is between July-June. Turnover figures are reported by financial year, before July
2023 in lieu of quarterly figures and quarterly from 1 July 2023.
Quarterly figures are based on the previous 12 months’ permanent staff turnover. To calculate the
Quarterly turnover, we took the number of unplanned leavers over the previous 12-month period
divided by average headcount in the 12-month period.
Redundancies have not been included in the calculation of any turnover figures, as they were not
included in the financial year (FY) turnover figures, and it would not be a fair comparison.
Time period
Turnover
2020/21 FY (Jul 20 – Jun 21)
9.0%
2021/22 FY (Jul 21 – Jun 22)
22.0%
2022/23 FY (Jul 22 – Jun 23)
22.0%
2023
Qtr3 (Jul-Sep)
24.9%
Qtr4 (Oct-Dec)
23.7%
2024
Qtr1 (Jan-Mar)
15.9%
Qtr2 (Apr-Jun)
17.5%
Qtr3 (Jul-Sep)
12.9%
Qtr4 (Oct-Dec)
10.7%
2025
Qtr1 (Jan-Mar)
11.5%
Electoral Commission
Level 4, 34-42 Manners Street, PO Box 3220, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Telephone +64 4 495 0030 Fax +64 4 495 0031
www.vote.nz | www.elections.nz
In the interests of transparency, we release responses to Official Information Act requests every 3
months. We will publish this response with your personal details redacted.
You have the right under section 28(3) of the Act to make a complaint to the Ombudsman if you are
not satisfied with the response to your request. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Lucy Hickman
Deputy Chief Executive Enterprise Services
Electoral Commission
Level 4, 34-42 Manners Street, PO Box 3220, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Telephone +64 4 495 0030 Fax +64 4 495 0031
www.vote.nz | www.elections.nz
