Givealittle to help Ana Shaw fight the DHB Bullying culture in the employment court .

You might have seen my story in the press or heard it on the radio (Checkpoint with John Campbell) in May 2018, Once again my case has been postponed with the ERA , as it has regularly over the last 3 1/2 yrs nearly. The DHB lawyers have said they will destroy me financially and emotionally if I don't give up on the personal grievances claim .

The ERA has decided to exclude my claim using the 90 day clause ( even though I have evidence I did raise grievances within 90 days).

As a matter of principal and to stop these atrocities being committed against hard working people, I need to take this matter to the court and need your assistance to set precedence.

“I won't drop the case because I have to clear my name, it’s for integrity and for people to be accountable.”

" I know of deaths at the DHB. If we don’t speak up for them, then who will?”

Any surplus funds after my costs have been covered will be used to assist other employees wanting to take their cases to ERA and cannot afford.

Your help to stop these atrocities and abuse of behaviour would be appreciated

The articles can be found no the following links :

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/investigation-the-suicides...

https://www.radionz.co.nz/.../woman-fired-while-trying-to-prove-bullying-at-tauranga

An extract of my story as publishes by Mava Enoch on the wireless :

"Ana Shaw a straight talking South African, is a tough lady but she felt bullied at Tauranga Hospital and it left her crushed. She takes out her phone and plays a video of her grandson blowing her a kiss. It’s her family that keeps her going. Without them she might be dead.

“[I was] crumbling, going home crying, thinking can I just overdose on something? Where’s the highest bridge to jump off? How do I leave my son in a foreign country without a mother?”

Ana Shaw has 32 years' clinical experience. She trained in South Africa and immigrated to New Zealand on the skills shortage list.

In August 2010, Shaw started work at Tauranga Hospital. Four years later, she was fired.

The problems started shortly after she arrived at the hospital. She remembers when an inspiring quote was posted on the staff room wall: “Everybody needs encouragement; you can speak a word that changes someone’s life!”

“Some of the staff had a field day adding words to it,” says Shaw. “I saw it and ignored it. One of the girls who didn’t like me asked me if I’d seen it, then sniggered and walked off.”

Words like ‘lesbian’ and ‘average’ were scrawled over the poster. Someone had circled ‘needs encouragement’ and wrote ‘fired’ in a highlighter, Shaw says.

She tried not to let it bother her but she was hurt. “I went home to my friends and poured my heart out. I couldn't believe it,” she says.

“Bullying is worldwide, you can’t blame New Zealand for this. But I’d never dealt with it in this degree of maliciousness.” It was ongoing, sometimes subtle, and slowly eroded her confidence. She says a colleague called her a “black lady”, another said she was an "African wildebeest", and a third told her to go back to South Africa. Once, a colleague complained in front of management that she “walked too fast, spoke too fast, and worked too fast.”

One staff member repeatedly tampered with her patient notes and management blocked her learning opportunities, says Shaw. She felt belittled, demeaned and ignored. Once, she says, the aggression was so obvious that a patient stood up for her.

“No matter how many times I raised bullying issues, no matter what I raised, nothing was ever actioned,” says Shaw.

She raised her complaints with her union. Emails from her union, Apex, show they suggested she keep detailed records of incidents. Shaw says she didn’t receive the support she hoped for.At one stage, Shaw emailed the DHB and asked for mediation with a coworker she felt treated her badly. The email response from HR says it “doesn’t get involved in interpersonal conflict”. In 2013, HR also told Shaw not to copy them into emails after she raised a concern that “relevant professional information” was being kept from her by a manager.

“My mental health declined drastically,” says Shaw.

Shaw remembers when her situation at work took a turn for the worse. In 2014, there had been a mix up with a reporting process that involved vital patient information. After one patient wasn’t called back despite having serious health problems, Shaw felt it was important to raise the issue with the team.

She sent an email to a manager and six colleagues. In it, she described the problem and asked everyone to “work together and not against each other” for the well-being of patients “I’m very straightforward and I have learnt that the culture here is very different.” But other than being to the point, Shaw doesn't see anything wrong with the email.Except this time was different; the manager launched a formal investigation into Shaw’s email.

“I was devastated. I had been complaining about multiple incidents of bullying and harassment over several years and nothing had been done. Then I sent out an email and they carried out a full-blown investigation.the manager produced a 50-page report in which she concluded that Shaw’s 11-line email breached DHB policy and recommended she be disciplined She handed in 150 pages to the DHB. Five days later, she was told she was being investigated for “breaching patient confidentiality”.

Shaw had included photocopies of patient reports in her evidence because she felt the tampering with her notes was evidence of mistreatment. She insists the patient records never left the hospital grounds. She says they never went to anyone else other than the DHB. She redacted the names with black marker but some patient details became visible when she photocopied them.

“I was shocked that I could be in trouble for providing information confidentially when I was asked by the DHB to do so,” she says. Five months after she was fired, she got a job as a retail assistant. The drop in income meant she had to move out of her rental and in with friends. Her mental health began to slide and she was diagnosed with depression, which she had never experienced before. She’s been on and off medication since 2016.

“I won't drop the case because I have to clear my name, it’s for integrity and for people to be accountable.”

"I know of deaths at the DHB. If we don’t speak up for them, then who will?” says Shaw. "

Your help would be appreciated