It won’t be news to anyone reading this article that being a principal is a stressful and demanding job. You have statutory responsibility for the school’s day to day management, and in carrying out your duties you can be faced with some conflicting and occasionally unreasonable demands and expectations from the people you work with.
At PASL we see many principals working tirelessly to look after their community, staff, and students, only to find themselves isolated and vulnerable in the fact of an unreasonable demand or a vexatious attack.
Who is looking out for you when things get tricky?
You are an employee of the Board, and the Board, as your employer, has a statutory duty to be active and constructive in maintaining a productive employment relationship with you. They also have statutory obligations from a health and safety perspective.
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, Boards have a primary duty of care requiring them to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that, just like any other employee, the principal has a safe and healthy workplace. This is not limited to physical health. It includes a psychologically safe workplace.
Your employment agreement also contains provisions about health and safety, including;
Where a principal’s health and safety is shown to be at risk in the carrying out of their duties, the employer shall take all reasonable steps as are necessary to remove or minimise the identified risk for the principal and if appropriate, to do so in consultation with the relevant health and safety authorities.
The Employment Court has recently considered health and safety in the school environment, and confirmed the application of the following implied terms of employment:
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(a) An employer will meet its statutory duties and obligations;
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(b) An employer will take reasonable steps to maintain a safe workplace; and
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(c) An employer will keep workers healthy and safe while at work.
School Boards must be properly supportive of the principal. If there are issues at school which are causing you additional stress, such as being verbally abused by a parent, or facing a barrage of objectionable emails or unreasonable complaints, then the Board has a duty to support you in addressing the situation. That may include practical steps such as reminding the parent that they must conduct themselves appropriately in communicating with the school, providing an alternative email address and/or alternative contact person, and offering the principal EAP, discretionary leave, or the opportunity to work from home for a day or so. It is not sufficient for the Board to just leave you to manage a stressful and distressing situation.
In December 2023 the Employment Court awarded two former school counsellors of Melville High School $1.79m for various breaches of contract and personal grievances in relation to the significant mental harm they suffered throughout their employment.
The counsellors provided a wide range of counselling services to the school community over a period of time which included a number of extremely traumatic events, including student suicides, fatal crashes, terminal illness and murder. The counsellors were later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Court considered that the traumatic events at this school, together with the need to provide counselling to those affected by the events, would have highlighted to a fair and reasonable employer the steps necessary to support the counsellors. The Court made it clear that wilful blindness is not an excuse. If a school Board knows (or ought to know) there is a health and safety risk to its staff, then it has a duty to act.
As principal you must be attentive to the health and safety of the staff. You also have a duty to let the Board know of any potential issues that are affecting your own health and/or your ability to do your job, as you must take steps to support your own health and safety in the workplace. If your Board is aware you have been dealing with a really challenging situation, then they should ask you how you are, and offer you support.
Offering support does not mean taking over your management of the school, or requiring you to provide medical confirmation you are fit to be at work (although that might be reasonable in the most serious situations). Support includes asking you what would assist you, and backing you when you need to make tough decisions.
In addition to ensuring your Board is put on notice and seeking appropriate support, you have access to support, advice and information through your professional networks and colleagues, the NZPF Helpline, your Ministry adviser, EAP, and other counselling. You need to feel safe at work and properly supported in order to properly support your own staff and students. It may be appropriate to ask your Board to seek additional support from the Ministry of Education, and we at PASL are always more than happy to have a chat.
Principals can bring personal grievances and breach of contract claims against their Board for the Boards failure to provide them with a safe workplace. Most principals would prefer to resolve the situation constructively rather than having to take this formal action against their Board.