The chief executive of Fire and Emergency says the organisation is doing “a lot of work” to tackle “pockets” of inappropriate behaviour among staff.
Fire and Emergency chief executive Kerry Gregory yesterday shared a video to Facebook. Gregory said he’s “proud” of the service and praised staff’s dedication — but “our reputation and standing is being disrespected by the actions of a few”, he said.
“My message is clear – enough is enough; this must end.”
He told Breakfast this morning there were “a number of reasons” for the video, including two separate independent reviews into the organisation’s culture.
“The last review was in 2022 and, from then, we’ve been doing a lot of work around our culture and how we need to be as an organisation.
“Our people do a fantastic job across the organisation. We’re really blessed as an organisation with the passion, the selflessness that people give every day,” Gregory said.
“But there are pockets there that are just inappropriate in the behaviour.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work in that space, we’ve just put a new code of conduct out and we’ve just launched our managing conduct and behaviour policy.”
It felt like the right time to “have a call to action”, he added.
Change has to come from right across the organisation, Gregory said.
“The video I put out yesterday was really a call to action from our people to just say, enough is enough, let’s have the honest conversations with people – who, often, they don’t know the hurt that they’re causing to others, and the disrespect to what’s a really highly-regarded organisation where we don’t need those accusations of inappropriate behaviours,” he said.
“What I’m seeing often is, you know, I guess it’s misguided loyalty in some spaces, where we go into investigations where we know things are wrong and then suddenly we don’t get the engagement from our people who’re standing up, with that loyalty towards their fellow colleagues.
“But what I say is, the loyalty needs to be to all of our people, and making sure that all of our people can be safe.
“All the parts are in place now for us to say to the organisation, ‘now we need you, we need you to step up’,” Gregory said.
“I’m confident that our people will stand up and actually support the kaupapa that we’re trying to drive and make the changes,” he added.
FENZ review in 2022
Among the recommendations from the independent review of Fire and Emergency’s workplace culture and complaint handling practices by Belinda Clark in 2022 was “a whole of organisation, end-to-end cultural change”.
“This is not about updating policies and processes but is about changing attitudes and behaviour,” Clark wrote.
“The required change will only occur if there is strong and accountable leadership, and clear expectations with consequences if they are not met.”
Clark also recommended “a tangible shift towards diversity at all levels of the organisation; and strengthened people management and training”.