Ongoing Poor Health & Bereavements for New Zealand Dept of Transport Staff

Comparing 2020 with 2023 NZ Dept of Transport staff suffer 188% more sick days, 130% more unpaid leave days and a 85% increase in bereavement leave. Is this sustainable?

I’ve written numerous articles resulting mainly from Official Information Act responses, regarding the processes, challenges and outcomes of the New Zealand ‘Vaccine’ Mandate Order. All of the Kiwi public sector workers, and many of the Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) connected to pseudo-charities and NGOs were also impacted. Some managed to escape the Order, but not many.

There are now, more than two years after the horrendous ‘No Jab, No Job’ policy came to an end, evidence of ongoing harms from these experimental injections. Unbelievably, the Gov is still promoting them through relentless propaganda. Locally, there are tragic stories everyday of younger people dying unexpectedly. Strokes, heart attacks and serious disease like brain cancer. Health problems are now a common topic of everyday conversation and yet, for many the Elephant in the Room still remains unsaid.

I want to return to this context of an article I wrote last month about the Dept of Transport in New Zealand, where I outlined the ‘vaccine’ mandate on staff:

I know, anecdotally, many workforces have been negatively impacted by the ongoing death and ill-health suffered by the staff and their families who were mandated. But because of the severe and unending censorship, we need more hard evidence. I now have the response to a further OIA request (Ref OC0240411) to this Gov Dept. This data provides valuable insight into the devastating harms - physically and psychologically - on everyday Kiwis, who were just trying to do their job, pay their bills - people who trusted our Government and believed their civic duty was to support the ‘Team of 5 million’ as Jabcinda called it.

So, I asked for a break down of the bereavement leave, sick leave and leave without pay for all staff and contractors of the New Zealand Dept of Transport from the beginning of 2020 to the current day.

Contractors’ HR data (likely an enormous number) was not recorded or available, which is a shame. But look at the results for the approximately 180 staff alone summarised in the table below. This data really hit me like a juggernaut. How can bereavement leave almost double from 60 days in 2020 to 111 days in 2023? Remember there was no ‘covid’ (whatever that was) in NZ in 2020, we were isolated and I firmly believe that in our relatively warm, sunny climate, with a sparse population who are often working/playing outside, it wouldn’t have been a big deal anyway. But that discussion is for another day.

Look at the bereavement data for 2024 up to March - this could be even higher than last years figures if current days continue along this track. Sick leave increased from 639 days in 2020 to a staggering 1862 days in 2022 and still >1842 last year. That’s 188 % increase. Note the timing of the ‘vaccination roll-out’ - at its height in Sept 2021, with the jab mandates implemented in November that year. And looking at sick leave days so far in 2024: if >445 remains an average, that could mean a total of 1780 by the end of the year. This means staff health is not improving.

And finally leave without pay - i.e. when all a staff member’s holiday, sick and statutory days are used up - went up 130 % from 351 days p/a in 2020 to 809 days in 2023. This is significant because NZ has a high number of public holidays and often leave is flexible. But again, the first three months of 2024 are looking even worse, with a possible predicted 1032 unpaid leave days ahead.

How does any organisation cope with this catastrophic increase in staff absence?

Unpaid leave in Green, Sick Leave in Orange and Bereavement leave in Blue: separated by year 2020-2023. Source: NZDoT OIA OC0240411

Every single factor of this data represents a personal tragic story. So many people facing pain and loss. But no help is coming until the Governments face up to the reality of the crime they have committed on their own citizens.

What is your workplace experiencing in terms of current ill health and bereavements? How do us taxpayers continue to support the costs of these public sector workers being away from their jobs? Who recruits and trains any replacements? What does the rest of 2024 look like, and into the future, if these individuals are being gaslit and prevented from seeking help or treatments?

God help us all.