A New Zealand court has ruled that the University of Auckland breached its obligations to protect prominent microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles from the intense abuse and harassment she suffered while providing public information about the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the court did not find that the university suppressed Wiles' academic freedom when it recommended that she keep her public comments to a minimum to reduce harassment.

There is strong debate around the world about the extent to which universities are responsible for To protect academics because of their discussions about their work being harassed on social media or the media.

The attacks on Wiles began in March 2020, shortly after she began making comments about COVID-19 in the media and on social media. The attacks included offensive messages on social media and email, posting Wile's personal information online and phone calls. Events escalated into public confrontations and damage to their home. In her lawsuit against the university, Wiles alleged that despite the institution's numerous efforts to help address the abuse, its policies and practices were "not fit for purpose," she said in a statement.

In her ruling, Judge Joanna Holden of the New Zealand Employment Tribunal ruled that the university had breached its contractual obligations to protect Wiles' health and safety. She found that the university did not respond in good faith to the ongoing abuse and that some of its responses to Wiles exacerbated her distress. The judge also recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic was a challenging time and that the university strived to meet its health and safety obligations, even if they were ultimately inadequate. She ordered the university to pay Wiles damages of NZ$20,000 (US$12,000), the maximum allowed under New Zealand's Employment Relations Act, but imposed no penalty on the university.

Wiles had also claimed the university's instructions to reduce its public activities around COVID-19 were inconsistent with her and the university's obligations — under the Treaty of Waitangi — to provide support to Māori, New Zealand's indigenous peoples. However, the judge found that there was no breach of these obligations.

Part of the job

One of the issues at issue was whether the activities that gave rise to the abuse, including Wiles' social media posts and some public and media engagement, were part of her job — the university argued that they were external activities. However, the judge found that Wiles' public COVID-19 comments were part of her job and made her a target of abuse.

Wiles, who is still employed by the University of Auckland, says she feels vindicated by the decision, particularly the judge's acknowledgment that the media and public commentary she provided during the pandemic was, in fact, part of her job. She said oppositeNature, that perhaps the most important section of the ruling for academics “is that providing this expert commentary is part of our work and that our employers must therefore keep us safe”.

Responding to the judge's finding that the University of Auckland had not suppressed Wiles' academic freedom by recommending that she reduce her public comments to reduce harassment, the university's vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater said in a statement that the ruling was significant. It “will be well received by universities in New Zealand and around the world,” she said.

But Jack Heinemann, a geneticist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand — who acted as an academic freedom expert for Wiles — says that with this decision, Holden was not suggesting that workplace health and safety concerns can override academic freedom. “One does not cancel out the other,” says Heinemann.

Physicist Shaun Hendy, who originally filed a complaint with Wiles against the University of Auckland but agreed to a settlement when he left the university for a new job, says the ruling should be a warning for institutions to step up their game when it comes to dealing with harassment. Universities need to think about what is good practice to protect their staff when engaging in media commentary, he says.

You askNaturefollowing the University's current strategy for managing staff health and safety online, A spokesman said that by mid-2023 the recommendations of an external safety and security audit carried out in 2021 had been implemented. The recommendations provided additional support and resources for university employees experiencing harassment and threats.