Press release

ACCLAIM Support Groups

Revelations in today's media that ACC staff are bullied in the workplace only serves to reiterate what claimants and their advocates have been saying for a long time now. The culture within ACC is inappropriate and out of control. Janice Gemmell said "It is our view that the management culture in this organisation uses both bullying and standover tactics, making the work environment unsafe."

It doesn't take much to understand what the flow-on effects are if employees of ACC are working in this environment.

There is more than adequate research to show that people who are bullied will often then turn into bullies themselves. "Accident victims have consistently been subjected to similar tactics as the ACC staff are claiming happens to them." ACCLAIM spokesperson Murray Jorgensen stated. " To hear ACC staff stating that their work environment is one of persecution and bullying doesn't surprise us at all. What is interesting though is that they are referring to their own persecution and not that of their clients'.

This culture and adverse attitude quite obviously comes from management. This is further evidence that a full select-committee or other indpendent inquiry is needed into ACC starting with the Board, senior management staff including Wilson, McGreevey and Rankin and cascading down through all operational staff. This allegation about the way management treats ACC staff is very serious indeed because it has significant impacts on claimants and their families. There needs to be a full inquiry into ACC and its practises before more people's lives are destroyed.

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