Probation officer says Corrections Dept wants her sacked

Josie Bullock

Probation officer Josie Bullock who spoke out against the Corrections Department's cultural sensitivity practices says the department considers she should be dismissed.

"They're saying because I've spoken to the media and that's against the code of conduct that I should be dismissed," she said.

She would fight moves to dismiss her. A meeting with department officials had been scheduled for Thursday, although she might seek to have it postponed to next week.

"I imagine it will be a week or so after that before they actually say, 'you're dismissed'," Ms Bullock told National Radio today.

Ms Bullock has been under investigation by Corrections after she went public in frustration at a seeming lack of progress at investigating a sexism complaint she laid after an incident at a poroporoaki, or farewell, for male offenders who had completed a violence-prevention programme last December.

She had been verbally warned for refusing to move behind men at the ceremony, as required by Maori protocol.

She was found guilty last month of serious misconduct after repeatedly breaching Corrections' code of conduct by speaking to the media without authorisation.

Today Ms Bullock said that after she was dismissed she would be taking her case up with the Human Rights Review Tribunal which she had already contacted about her case.

"I've just sent a letter saying that I've been treated in a sexist way. Why shouldn't I sit at the front like any other probation officer?"

She also felt it was wrong that public servants were not able to talk about such policies, she said.

"Who else is going to talk about them? If I hadn't talked about this issue it would never have got out into the public arena.

"I do feel it's important that these things are discussed. I think it's wrong that they come down so hard on anyone who speaks about their policies."

Ms Bullock said her terms of employment stated she was not allowed to talk to the media and had to refer reporters to the department's communications unit.

She acknowledged she had broken the code of conduct but said she did not think the code was "fair" and public servants should not be "gagged".

"What sort of democracy have we got if government employees can't talk about government policy, because they're the ones who know what goes on," she said.

"I'm not talking about anyone's personal business or offenders' records or anything like that. I'm just talking about the policies."

The Dominion Post reported that in a letter yesterday, northern community Probation Service regional manager Astrid Kalders said the department could not continue to have confidence in Ms Bullock's ability to do her job.

Her "deliberate and repeated" behaviour in airing concerns in public was behaviour that "reflected badly" on Corrections.

It was "unacceptable" for her to criticise its programmes.

Ms Kalders refused to comment on the letter, saying she would not discuss the matter at this stage.

- nzpa