Gisborne District Council praised for low employment settlement costs over six years

Smith Dunn employment lawyer Bridget Smith has praised the Gisborne District Council on its low pay deal figures, spending an average of $20,540.50 annually over the past six years.

An employment lawyer has praised Gisborne District Council on its low settlement figures – an average of $20,540 annually over the past six years.

The council has had 34 settlement agreements (an average of 5.6 a year), totalling $123,243, from 2019 to May 6 this year.

These figures were provided to Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) after it requested – under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act – the number of stand-alone or additional non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements signed by council staff outside routine employment agreements since 2019.

Smith Dunn employment lawyer Bridget Smith says the figures showed “the council is doing extremely well”.

“It must be very focused on appropriate expenditure of public funds to have settlement figures that are that low. Whichever way you look at it, it is a small amount of money.”

Smith said it was “even more so” when looking at the number of full-time equivalent staff members, which a council spokesperson confirmed was 422.

Since 2019, the council has spent $123,243 on settlements, averaging $20,540.50 a year. Calculated another way, the 34 settlements have cost on average $3624.79.

“I would confidently say that would be much lower than private companies of that size.“

Smith said situations resulting in confidentiality agreements were generally personal grievance claims, whereby the parties agreed to resolve an employment relationship problem between them by giving consideration (usually including a financial component) in return for a full and final settlement of all matters between the parties.

“This could be where there is a complaint about an employee, such as bullying or harassment, a particular employment relationship is not working for whatever reason, there is a decision to end an employee’s employment earlier than intended. There are multiple reasons why a settlement agreement could be entered into.”

Smith said ratepayers had a right to know how ratepayer money was being spent, but in this case, she believed the council was taking a prudent approach, and the amount over this period was appropriately low.

Council people and capability manager Aleisha Newlands told LDR the council was pleased to receive positive external observations about its employment practices.

The council had robust internal processes for managing employment matters, she said.

“Where issues do arise, we aim to address them fairly, in line with our obligations as a public entity.”

The council was committed to maintaining a constructive and respectful workplace, with a strong focus on early resolution and open communication, she said.