Canterbury University lecturer Henry Holderness has spoken out against "a toxic environment where people are encouraged to make serious complaints about very minor things". Photo / Website
Canterbury University lecturer Henry Holderness has spoken out against "a toxic environment where people are encouraged to make serious complaints about very minor things". Photo / Website
A Canterbury University law lecturer suspended over alleged "inappropriate conduct" has gone public to fight what he says has become "a toxic environment" at the university.
Henry Holderness, a specialist in insurance and employment law, was suspended on Monday over an allegation that he kissed two female students on the forehead at a pub quiz on September 17.
He has gone public about the allegation himself, and plans to lodge a personal grievance claim in the Employment Relations Authority, because he believes he was suspended without the full allegations being put to him first.
He said the Tertiary Education Union, which is assisting him with the personal grievance, was also dealing with six or seven similar cases at the university.
"The university has created this kind of toxic environment where people are encouraged to make serious complaints about very minor things, and then they will be investigated with all the resources that are available to be a big employer, and in most cases it turns out to be completely innocuous," he said.
"I'm not prepared to let them get away with this. It's time someone stood up and was counted in relation to this sort of thing. It is not acceptable for them to treat people in this way."
The university's Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the College of Business and Law, Professor Sonia Mazey, said the university was following a due process.
Professor Sonia Mazey: "There are processes in place and these are being followed." Photo / University website
"The university has received a formal complaint alleging inappropriate conduct of a staff member," she said.
"The university is undertaking a formal investigation and the staff member has been suspended while this is carried out. There are processes in place and these are being followed."
But Holderness said the university had told him that he was being suspended because of "further information" that had come to light, but had refused to tell him what the information was.
"They needed to ask me, put that information before me and give me an opportunity to comment on what they were proposing to do," he said.
"They told me they had further information over and above what they had disclosed to me. I asked them what it was and they said, 'Sorry, we can't tell you.'
"To me, that is an absolutely flagrant breach of the principles of natural justice and employment law."
Holderness, 41, said the allegations were having an "awful" impact on his wife, their two children, and his parents.
"My father used to be a District Court Judge in Christchurch. I would describe him as a pillar of the local community," he said.
He said he attended student events such as the pub quiz because the students invited him.
"I'm a social guy, I go to these events. The students invite me, they know that I'm a friendly, open guy," he said.
"I'm prepared to go along and mix it with the students and they love that, they really appreciate me being in these events."
He said one of the female students whom he was alleged to have kissed was a friend and had told the Tertiary Education Union that the allegation was "entirely false".
"From what I understand from my friend, it did not happen in the way that has been alleged," he said.
He did not know the other female student involved, but he said the person who complained to the university about the incident was a male student from outside the law school who did not consult the two female students first.
"He said that in the complaint. He said, 'I'm doing this off my own bat, I feel I should do it anyway,'" Holderness said.
He said the university planned to appoint an independent lawyer to investigate the allegations.
"I'm not going to cooperate with any sort of investigation, I simply don't trust them," he said.
"From my perspective, the appropriate forum for the facts and events of this case to be established is the Employment Relations Authority, and that is partly why I have taken the step of instructing a lawyer to file a claim in that forum.
"That is the body that will establish the facts of what happened. They have very wide powers of investigation."
