Shakti: Migrant women's charity threatens legal action against whistle-blowers

Shakti runs a 24-hour domestic violence intervention service for women and children from Asian, African, and Middle Eastern backgrounds. Photo / Shakti homepage

Migrant women's charity Shakti is threatening legal action against anonymous whistle-blowers who claim bullying behaviour and exploitative conditions at the organisation.

Shakti issued a statement last week saying it has engaged lawyers and digital communications advisers to deal with people who are creating what it called "harmful digital communications" and "defamatory statements" against it.

It also called on the public to report these people to NetSafe or the police.

"We are deeply hurt to learn of the extent of the harassment from people who claim anonymity and victim status against our victim-centric support organisation," Shakti chairwoman Dr Shanthi Selvakumar said in the statement.

Shakti runs a domestic violence intervention service for women and children from Asian, African, and Middle Eastern backgrounds, including a 24-hour helpline and safe houses around the country.

"However, as an organisation, we have a duty to protect the safety of our staff, clients and reputation. Regrettably, we need to consider legal action as a recourse going forward, Selvakumar said.

Allegations about Shakti emerged online in March in an anonymous open letter together with more than a dozen personal testimonies.

In April, several women spoke to the Herald on condition of anonymity, claiming systemic overwork, unsafe practices and a culture of yelling at the charity. The same whistle-blowers also said they believed in the work the organisation was doing.

They say they believe Shakti's latest statement is a fear and silencing tactic, a bid to take away "the right to protest" and "shut down the publicity".

NetSafe CEO Martin Cocker says former Shakti employees have the right to express their concerns about the charity, and there is a need to balance freedom of expression and protecting people from online harm.

"Plenty of people try to use the Harmful Digital Communications Act to silence criticism," he said, "We're quite conscious of that."

Martin Cocker, chief executive of Netsafe. Photo / Michael Craig

The Act administered by NetSafe is designed for harm reduction, not prosecution, and it protects individuals, not organisations, he says.

"All we're here to do is ensure people don't cross the line from making allowed criticisms and statements about their experiences and concerns about their organisation, to making harmful digital communications about individuals," Cocker said.

Shakti's biggest funder, the Ministry of Social Development, has commissioned Deloitte to investigate the allegations in an independent review expected to take months.

"The intent of an independent review is to balance the protection offered to parties who wish to remain anonymous, while also allowing Shakti sufficient information to be able to respond to these allegations," said MSD general manager for service and contracts management Kelvin Moffatt.

Employment lawyer Blair Scotland said he believed Shakti's approach was unusual.

"You don't often see employers coming out and making reasonably overt threats they'll sue people raising what [appear to be] by and large employment disputes," said the partner at law firm Dundas Street.

In Scotland's view, the stance taken could be seen as potentially "bullying behaviour in and of itself, a perpetuation of what's alleged in the first place".

Pursuing defamation proceedings are potentially very expensive and may not produce great results against anonymous claims, he said.

Shakti declined comment for this story.

"We may never be able to find jobs again"

Morale is down and staff have resigned since news of the allegations broke, according to sources at Shakti.

The Herald spoke to several people who believe the atmosphere at Shakti was unhealthy and claimed some staff were "looked at with suspicion".

Shakti's current and former employees include migrants and domestic violence survivors holding visas tied to the charity. Some of them are single mothers and many have limited legal knowledge and local support networks.

More than one claim they have witnessed colleagues called "useless", "donkey", and scolded for causing harm to women and children when they made mistakes at work.

"Someone would get bullied or shouted at and the staff would come out crying."

One woman claimed leaders seem to see the allegations as a crusade against Shakti and its work for migrant women and children.

She says she heard senior staff joking about the allegations of yelling. "I heard them saying sarcastically, 'Apparently we shout too much'."

They said they were afraid to speak up because they feared retaliation, being shut down or alienated.

"We may never be able to find any jobs again."