Immigration NZ employees put on leave after inappropriate conversation on Teams: reports

Eight employees of Immigration New Zealand have been placed on leave after alleged inappropriate and unprofessional conversations on Microsoft Teams.

Immigration NZ head Alison McDonald said the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) is now looking into the employee conversations.

"These comments appear to be in breach of MBIE's code of conduct, which sets out the expectations we have of our people, including that we are professional and objective in our language and all our actions and interactions," McDonald said as quoted by Radio New Zealand.

The Immigration NZ official said she is "disappointed" by the alleged behaviour, adding that it is in contrary to MBIE's values

"Inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour by our people is completely unacceptable and MBIE will not hesitate to take any appropriate disciplinary action," McDonald said as quoted by the New Zealand Herald.

"We are committed to ensuring that we act in good faith and that there is a fair process so we will not be commenting further on these employment matters."

Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford added that allegations of inappropriate behaviour "need to be thoroughly investigated."

"MBIE advises me it has no place for offensive and discriminatory behaviour, and I am confident they will appropriately address this issue," Stanford said as quoted by the Herald.

The MBIE, where Immigration NZ is under, started going through employees' conversations on Microsoft Teams while it was investigating a complaint about another worker. RNZ reported that the complaint was not substantiated.