Human Rights Commission seeks to train public servants

By TOM CLARKE

The Human Rights Commission has received "quite a high number" of complaints about discrimination involving the public service, says Victoria Gregory.

Ms Gregory has just joined the commission as a Wellington-based educator-trainer to help the public sector comply with the requirements of the Human Rights Act. Private sector employers have had to comply with the act for the last five years, but the public service remains exempt until the end of next year.

Complaints lodged with the commission are from public service employees over employment issues and from the public about the goods and services the public service provides.

Ms Gregory says the commission has received quite a high number of complaints about discrimination within the public service, but that statistics are not available.

Although the commission is unable to take any legal action against the public service at present, it has been trying to "conciliate these complaints." The commission has "often been successful," Ms Gregory says, in assisting the public service to develop or change its practices "so they are more in line with compliance."

She has been asked to target some public sector organisations because of the complaints against them, but she is not prepared to name the organisations involved.

But while the Human Rights Act gives the public sector another 15 months to comply, it is not generally realised that the Employment Relations Act (ERA), which comes into effect on October 2, provides another avenue for action as far as employment issues are concerned.

Ms Gregory says public service employees could then immediately use the ERA to take legal action through the Employment Tribunal or Employment Court over allegations of discrimination.

Meanwhile, her task is huge. There are 42 public sector organisations, each with thousands of employees.

Ms Gregory is an experienced educator-trainer and has worked in a variety of positions in the public, private and tertiary sectors for 12 years. She was recently contracted to the Defence Department as an equity and human resource adviser.