Police would not elaborate on what the man\u2019s alleged behaviour was towards the women.<\/p>\n
Silvester said the person who made the report had been advised of the outcome and police had offered them support.<\/p>\n
The ministry\u2019s deputy chief executive for Disability Support Services (DSS) Anne Shaw said the organisation \u201cimmediately dealt with the complaint and the staff member complained about no longer works for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the incident happened outside the office later in the evening after the function was over.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought it was important to let all staff at DSS know there had been complaints and that the staff member complained of had resigned.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said DSS supports the women who spoke up about the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take any claims of inappropriate behaviour very seriously,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A whistleblower who contacted the Herald claimed \u201calcohol was supplied and consumed in a manner that posed serious risk to staff health and safety\u201d at the Christmas party.<\/p>\n
In response to claims of \u201cexcessive\u201d alcohol consumption at the event, Shaw said the department\u2019s alcohol policy was clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consumption of alcohol on MSD premises at any time requires the prior approval of a manager,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor social gatherings at our national office site, guidance is that alcohol cannot be consumed before 4pm and people need to leave by 7.30pm. Hosts need to have food available as part of being a responsible host. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese policies were complied with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for Social Development Minister Louise Upston said it was \u201can operational matter for MSD\/DSS\u201d but would not say if the politician had been made aware of the incident. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe minister expects all matters of this nature to be taken seriously,\u201d the spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
Ethan Manera<\/a> is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police would not elaborate on what the man\u2019s alleged behaviour was towards the women. Silvester said the person…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,44183,1559,18399,56154,30701,1054,9787,5504,42,78,671,137792,43,1523,4762,675,125984,3109,137793,1321,44970,1886,165,40,38,41,39,137794,4576],"class_list":["post-232071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-behaviour","tag-called","tag-christmas","tag-colleagues","tag-complaints","tag-disability","tag-female","tag-following","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-incident","tag-msd","tag-news","tag-over","tag-party","tag-police","tag-postchristmas","tag-public","tag-servant","tag-services","tag-spoke","tag-support","tag-their","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-unacceptable","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}