Oranga Tamariki manager who called colleague ‘sookie baby’ justifiably demoted, says ERA
Monday, 29 December 2025
An Oranga Tamariki manager who routinely referred to social workers as “f…ers”, commented on colleagues’ weight, and was eventually demoted after colleagues complained has been granted name suppression but had their grievance thrown out by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA).
The colleagues who complained about the manager, the gender of the manager, and even the location they worked at, have also been suppressed with ERA member Davinnia Tan saying there was no public interest in their names being published.
The case came before the ERA earlier this year - according to the just-released judgement - after the manager took a personal grievance for “unjustifiable disadvantage” after Oranga Tamariki found in June 2024 that the manager (referred to in the ERA determination as they) had bullied colleagues.
That behaviour wasn’t enough for the state agency to fire the manager. Initially, Oranga Tamariki had intended to dismiss them but instead they were given a “final warning”, removed from their managerial position, and required to work as a social worker again though at a different site, though they still got their managerial salary for a year.
Tan found the manager had not been unjustifiably disadvantaged, and that Oranga Tamariki’s investigation into the complaints against them had not been unfair.
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According to the ERA judgment, the manager had been with Oranga Tamariki for many years, was in charge of a team of supervisors and a practice leader, with four of five social workers being managed by each supervisor.
The manager’s job included the requirement to “create an inspiring team environment with an open communication culture to enhance practice excellence”, and to “role model the values of Oranga Tamariki”.
Instead, the manager subjected their colleagues to bullying, shouting, favouritism, ridicule, swearing and inappropriate personal comments, driving several to consider resigning, according to the ERA judgment.
One of the supervisors said the manager belittled staff by mocking them when they were distressed, rather than supporting them.
She had been called a “sookie baby” by the manager, who told her to “put her big girl pants on” and “suck it up”, while another said the manager had asked whether they wanted them to “throw the tissue box at you”.
So frightened of the manager were the three supervisors who complained that they waited until the manager was on annual leave before making their concerns known.
They feared retribution so much so that when being interviewed about what she had experienced, one would “stop speaking every time a person walked past the meeting room, requiring reassurance that no one could hear the discussion”.
The manager claimed to be surprised by the complaints, but in a meeting where they were accompanied by a union representative from the PSA, acknowledged that it was “a rude awakening”. They acknowledged they had not “always got things right”, and were “developing ground rules for team meetings”, and that they “will pay attention, not call out in office publicly” and that they were “wiling to grow/develop”.
In a later disciplinary meeting the manager attended, to which they brought a lawyer, they denied some of the complaints, and claimed the things they said were not meant in a nasty way.
The manager said that claims they did not pay attention in meetings was just a case of them multi-tasking on the phone and laptop. They denied intentional eye-rolling when others were speaking.
They understood that asking colleagues in a public setting “should you be eating that?” may have been seen as disrespectful.
Oranga Tamariki concluded that the manager was genuinely sorry for their behaviour, and had not been aware of its effects, but concluded the manager’s behaviour was at times highly unprofessional and displayed a serious lack of self-awareness.