Lubeck Marja; Salesa JennyMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's an absolute pleasure to rise in support of the Employment Relations (Extended Time for Personal Grievance for Sexual Harassment) Amendment Bill.First of all because it's the first time I've spoken on this bill I would like to congratulate my dear friend and colleague Dr Deborah Russell who has been in charge of shepherding this bill through the House. And as we have heard from my colleague previously she has done an excellent job in doing so. As we've heard our Education and Workforce Committee received a total of 43 submissions from interested groups and individuals and the vast majority of those who submitted supported the bill.To put it very simply this is a bill that puts in a very minor change to the Employment Relations Act but it is an important change. The problem that this bill deals with is that in the current legislation an employee who wishes to raise a personal grievance that involves allegations of sexual harassment has a period of 90 days to do so. What this bill does is it amends section 114 of the principal Act to extend the period within which a personal grievance must be raised from the current 90 days to 12 months where that personal grievance involves sexual harassment. This will ensure that employees will have time to process the experience in their own time. The issue with doing this within the current 90 days is that often coming forward to report sexual harassment can be very difficult and it's common for victims of sexual harassment to wait for a long time to come forward if they come forward at all. The most common defence to sexual harassment in fact is that the employee has not raised the issue with their employer. In cases of sexual harassment 90 days is simply not enough time to raise a complaint. It's important that employees have time to consider what has occurred and feel safe to raise it with others and this bill will ensure that they have time to process and proceed in a manner that suits them best. In a paper attached to the Auckland District Law Society's (ADLS's) submission on this bill Simon Schofield who teaches employment law at the University of Auckland says that the 90-day deadline for filing personal grievances fails the victims of sexual harassment. It does not reflect the way sexual harassment plays out in practice says Schofield who's a former member of the ADLS employment law committee. Victims deserve better and the law ignores the reality of sexual harassment. Schofield says: The truth is that the longer the law carries on in this unsatisfactory state the longer that sexual harassment will continue to thrive in the shadows; the longer that perpetrators will avoid accountability on technical grounds and the longer that victims … will … be denied access to justice." In Schofield's view a major reason for the delayed reporting of complaints is the power balance in the employment relationship and a fear of retaliation. Complainants also fear generating ill feeling amongst co-workers. Instead they will avoid or try to appease their harasser and often suffer from self-blame and guilt. The idea of reliving the experience in a courtroom can be traumatising. While the 90-day rule ensures employees can remedy personal grievances quickly the argument isn't relevant in the context of sexual harassment for the reasons mentioned.We also heard this from a submitter that was already mentioned by the member in charge of this bill Dr Deborah Russell. Zoë Lawton from the #MeToo Collective told us that "sexual harm is prevalent in New Zealand yet one of the most under reported forms of harm. With little accountability many perpetrators develop a pattern of behaviour and sexually harm multiple people throughout their careers in their communities or in their personal lives. A major contributing factor to low reporting rates is that coming forward as an individual can be very stressful isolating and ultimately overwhelming." She says it takes time for people to come forward for a wide range of reasons including the psychological toll.Zoë Lawton set up an online platform in 2018 to raise awareness about the prevalence of sexual harm in the legal profession and to enable people to share their experiences. She subsequently lobbied for amendments to legislation to increase access to justice for those who have experienced sexual harm and that includes the amendments that are part of this bill. Several accounts from individuals that were posted on this platform were referred to by Dr Deborah Russell in her first reading speech on this bill. And it makes it clear that the change to this legislation will be welcome. Our select committee heard from several submitters. I want to mention the PSA Women's Network who brought several women with them all making personal statements. Thank you Margaret Nancy Sonia Michelle Leota Alice and Nia. I'd like to echo the comments made by Deborah Russell before. We are very grateful to you and all those who courageously shared their very personal stories with the committee to ensure that their voices and those who were not able to speak up were heard. One of the stories I would like to recall is one from a woman who at 18 started her first job as a receptionist. She experienced sexual harassment from an older male colleague. As a much older woman now she has experienced sexual harassment on numerous occasions throughout her life and stated that she has learnt through hard bitter experience to stand up for herself when subjected to such inappropriate behaviour. In her submission she told us that she is determined to do everything she can to ensure other people do not suffer the same fear distress and sense of vulnerability that she has. I want to quote from her submission. She said "When one is young and relatively inexperienced it can be difficult to understand what is happening if you're being sexually harassed by someone and even more difficult to know what to do about it. You need time to process the event seek help and find an appropriate and safe way to make the perpetrator accountable." Another woman told us about her sexual harassment incident stating "It took me four months to get my head around how inappropriate a workplace incident it was. And then it took me a further three months to find another job to replace that one so I had enough money to live before I could move on and get out of there just so I didn't have to face that person again." So in her view a year wasn't even that long. Another submitter we heard from was Fleming Singleton Law. They informed us that taking sexual harassment cases takes time and a lot of the complaints are usually years from when harassment first began. It takes time because before raising a grievance the employee will have tried a lot of other mechanisms to deal with and Dr Deborah Russell spoke about this already previously. It includes things like laughing it off joking brushing it off minimising the experience avoiding attempts to stop it then asking for an investigation. And after all that people will then come for legal advice. And of course by that time the 90-day period is well exceeded. So regularly people will be out of time before they can raise their personal grievance. We also heard from the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. They talked about the significant barriers victims face to disclose harassment. They said victims do not feel empowered to come forward with complaints for a range of reasons including feelings of shame denial fear of consequences hopelessness helplessness and fear of facing scrutiny and blame. Dr Deborah Russell alluded to some of the amendments that our select committee made and we are reporting this bill back with them so I just want to mention a couple of those. First of all making the term "relevant period" specific to the nature of the personal grievance. So that means that it's 12 months for personal grievances for sexual harassment and continues to be 90 days for any other personal grievance. Our select committee initially also queried about the potentially retrospective nature of the bill and the member in charge clarified that is not the intention. So therefore in the Schedule clause 17 of new Part 4 inserted into Schedule 1AA needed to be more specific and that is how we have reported this bill back. This bill will improve the personal grievance process for victims of workplace sexual harassment by allowing them time to consider what has happened to them before deciding to come forward. Everyone has the right to feel safe in the workplace and more importantly have time to safely raise an issue with their employer. What this bill will do is it will significantly impact workplace cultures of silence towards sexual harassment. I would like to finish my contribution by again acknowledging all the submitters for their courageous stories and coming forward personally and in their papers to share those with us the officials from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment the Office of the Clerk the Parliamentary Counsel Office and members on the Education and Workforce Committee who all worked so collaboratively on this bill. It is great to see that this bill will receive cross-party support and I again congratulate Dr Deborah Russell for bringing it to the House.Our select committee recommends unanimously that the bill be passed. We also recommend that all amendments unanimously be passed. And it gives me great pleasure and it's an extreme privilege to be able to commend this bill to the House. Thank you Madam Speaker.Debate interrupted.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): This debate is interrupted. I will resume the Chair after the dinner break at 7 p.m. Thank you.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m."