Hendy and Wiles vs Auckland Uni

Stuff reports:

High profile academics and Covid-19 commentators Shaun Hendy and Siouxsie Wiles say harassment towards them is escalating, and their employer the University of Auckland has not done enough to ensure their safety.

A recently released Employment Relations Authority determination says Hendy and Wiles brought separate but similar claims against the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland.

Hendy and Wiles allege ongoing unjustified disadvantages at work arising from the university’s failure to appropriately address their safety concerns.

No one should be harrassed because of what they say, but there is a huge irony here in that Hendy and Wiles led the witch hunt against the seven professors who wrote the letter to the Listener on what qualifies as science, and have also attacked other academics whose work they disagree with. So it is hard to find much sympathy for them.

Harassment has included targeting via email, on social media and video sharing platforms, in person confrontations and threats of physical confrontations.

Wiles has been the subject of doxing with an associated threat to physically confront her at her home while Hendy has been physically confronted in his office on campus by an individual who threatened to “see him soon”.

Any threats of this nature should be reported to the Police.

Hendy and Wiles do not believe that it is reasonably practicable for them to limit their public commentary on Covid-19. They say such commentary is a key element of their academic roles and they have been asked by the university and the Prime Minister’s Office to provide such commentary, it says.

The part in bold seems newsworthy.