All MPs will be undergoing "healthy workplace training" says Rafael Gonzalez-Montero. Photo / Mark Mitchell
All MPs will be undergoing "healthy workplace training" says Rafael Gonzalez-Montero. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Parliament may have a reputation for being a toxic work environment but that is not how its top boss, Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, sees it.
The Colombian-born administrator has risen to the top in the 16 years he has worked at Parliament and he loves the place.
He is also upbeat abouthow it has changed as a workplace.
"When I started working here, you understood that you would deal with a member of Parliament and whatever they felt or however they wanted to talk to you, you just dealt with it."
But MPs themselves had changed. They were more considerate and more respectful and more concerned about how staff were treated.
We are sitting in his office in Parliament, discussing whether it was okay for his EA to take and collect our coffee orders – the EA says she is fine with it.
Gonzalez-Montero won't talk about the current or recent high-profile cases that have involved staff employed by the Parliamentary Service - Labour's Gaurav Sharma; former National MP Nick Smith; former National MP Jami-lee Ross; and the staffer wrongly accused of rape by Speaker Trevor Mallard.
Rafael Gonzalez-Montero has had a large range of jobs in his 16 years at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
But he acknowledges the damage done by publicity about them.
"One thing that is really hard is that when things blow up, people actually think this is a toxic place to work and I don't believe it is," he said.
"When people come and work in the Parliamentary Service they are always surprised because it's actually a really good culture and they say people are supportive and nice."
He began his working life in New Zealand as a young gofer at the Colombian Embassy more than 30 years ago. He has now spent more time living in New Zealand than in Colombia.
He worked at Air New Zealand and at the Mexican Embassy before taking a role at Parliament in the inter-parliamentary relations section, helping to run trips - which he never calls "junkets".
In other roles, he has helped to run select committees, received parties' questions for oral answer, promoted engagement between Parliament and the community, worked in corporate management and, immediately before his current job, was the Deputy Clerk of the House.
That sometimes involves sitting in front of the Speaker in the debating chamber and giving real-time advice on disputes that arise. It is something he has been allowed to continue every Wednesday night when Parliament sits.
Speaker Trevor Mallard and Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero appearing before the Government and administration select committee, December 2020. Photo / Getty Images
As chief executive of Parliamentary Service, Gonzalez-Montero reports to the Speaker and has occasionally appeared alongside Mallard at select committee hearings.
Memorably, in March last year, Mallard was grilled about the defamation case that had been settled with the staffer wrongly accused of rape.
Gonzalez-Montero was grilled too and said he would not settle any employment case taken by the former staffer.
The staffer had been suspended and then lost his job following an alleged sexual assault matter highlighted in the 2019 Francis Review on bullying and harassment at Parliament.
"I am not willing to settle with anybody that I believe has done something wrong," Gonzalez-Montero told the select committee. "If we get taken to court and we lose, I'd rather lose because we've done the right thing."
A couple of months later, Mallard used parliamentary privilege to say that the staffer had committed sexual assault, something the man has denied.
Many changes have happened as a result of the Francis bullying review and Gonzalez-Montero is overseeing it.
All MPs are having anti-bullying training - although it is called "healthy workplace training" – and all Labour MPs have completed theirs.
Last Friday, Mallard announced the appointment to one of the major outcomes of the review, an independent Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards.
Former Auditor-General Lyn Provost will take up the position in January 2023. She will be able to hear confidential complaints from people in the parliamentary workplace who don't believe an MP is meeting the code of conduct.
The code, officially known as "Behavioural statements for the parliamentary workplace" was developed by MPs on the cross-party culture subcommittee of the Parliamentary Service Commission – National's Jacquie Dean, Labour's Angie Warren-Clark, the Greens' Jan Logie and Act's Karen Chhour.
Its headline clauses include requiring people in the parliamentary workplace to show that bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment, are unacceptable; act respectfully and professionally; speak up if unacceptable behaviour is witnessed.
Speaker Trevor Mallard and Debbie Francis releasing the independent review of bullying and harassment at Parliament in May 2019. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Hiring practices have changed. In previous times, an MP could hire a party activist to be his or her executive assistant.
That no longer happens. The MP may recommend someone for a job but all staff have to undergo a formal recruitment and interview process.
He says very little of his time managing a staff of 700 or so is taken up with employment disputes – and won't say how many disputes are currently in play on the grounds of privacy.
But has the pendulum swung too far? Would it be hard for an MP to get rid of an incompetent staff member these days?
It is harder, said Gonzalez-Montero.
In previous times, there was a "breakdown clause" in the employment contract which allowed someone's job to be terminated on the grounds there was a breakdown in the relationship with the MP.
They often resulted in payouts and non-disclosure agreements and it was strongly condemned in the Debbie Francis review as a way to conceal badly behaving MPs.
Such a clause no longer exists.
"We changed that with the unions before the end of the previous Parliament so the breakdown clause doesn't exist any more," he said.
"In order to work through performance issues, you have to go through a performance management process like any other workplace in New Zealand."
That could involve mediation or a personal grievance within a range of options.
But he is also aware that some managers are concerned about raising performance issues with staff because they are worried about being accused of bullying.
"It's about getting the balance. We have got to be respectful of people that work with us and for us but be able to have a conversation about how things are going."
