Consultation – proposal to extend the Bullying & Harassment Policy pilot period

Background

The Australian Board and the New Zealand Committee, both jointly and severally, made a decision to release a joint bullying and harassment policy for our respective members and participants. This policy is currently in a pilot phase that began 11 April and is currently scheduled to end on Friday 11 July.

The Committee and the Board have received several pieces of feedback which has thus far been largely positive in relation to both the content of the policy and the decision to release the policy as a live pilot.

In the interests of transparency, there were two pieces of feedback received that were critical of the release mechanism (via live pilot rather than consultation and later implementation) and requested a withdrawal of the policy. The Committee discussed this request but, as a whole, stands by its decision to release and maintain the policy in effect as a pilot as per our initial release.

We have also received a suggestion to leave the policy in pilot phase for a longer period – preferably until a bullying or harassment complaint has been processed using the new policy. The purpose of this extension is to provide members, participants, and officers with more time to review the policy as well as to provide an extended opportunity to observe the policy in action.

The Committee and Board have discussed this suggestion at length and also liaised with the kingdom seneschal on the issue. Both organisations agreed unanimously to put the suggestion forward to our respective memberships for consideration.

Proposal

• The Bullying & Harassment Policy will remain in effect as a PILOT for a total period six months, OR until a bullying/harassment complaint has gone through the formal process as outlined in the policy, whichever is lesser.
• In the event that a test case has been completed before the six month period, a two-week notice period will be provided to the membership before the feedback period is closed.
• An outside feedback and test case period of six months will conclude on 11 October 2014.
• The Bullying & Harassment Policy is available at http://sca.org.nz/documents.

Next Steps

• Consultation will be carried out over the period outlined above.  Feedback is invited electronically via email. 
• Feedback can be sent to Melissa Muckart, SCANZ Chair, at feedback@sca.org.nz 
• Once all the feedback has been received this information will be considered before making a final decision.
• The membership will be provided with an anonymised recap of the feedback received and our responses.