University of Auckland’s associate director of Human Resources has “absolutely refuted” there was a victim-blaming mentality towards Dr Siouxsie Wiles.

Associate director of HR, Stefanie Boyer, is a witness for the university’s defence in the Employment Court where high-profile scientist Dr Siouxsie Wiles is arguing she was left “vulnerable” to mental and physical harm by her employer, the university.

In relation to earlier comments from cybersecurity expert Duncan Holland, where he claimed Boyer and Phillip Kirkham, campus operations manager, showed a “victim-blaming” mentality against Wiles, Boyer denied this.

”We’ve tried to support Dr Wiles and have taken a number of actions to do so. We continually tried to work with her and other staff.

”I don’t believe we have victim blamed her in any way, we tried to support staff.”

Wiles alleges the university didn’t do enough to ensure her safety as harassment against her escalated due to her public commentary on Covid-19.

Boyer told the court she was appointed as the key liaison for Wiles in February 2021 and said she checked in on her multiple times via phone calls, texts and emails.

“She said she’d like someone to check in on a human level, with empathy, so I really tried to do that.”

Boyer said she also logged any harassment that was reported and set up a social media monitoring service at Wiles’ request.

“The relationship between us at the time seemed quite friendly – we had an exchange of suggestions, support and ideas.”

In January 2022, Wiles and physics professor Shaun Hendy filed claims with the Employment Relations Authority against the university, alleging it failed to address their safety concerns due to harassment over their Covid commentary.

Hendy resolved his dispute after leaving the university in October 2022.

Wiles also alleges the university breached the academic staff collective agreement and good faith requirements.

The university denies unjustifiably disadvantaging Wiles or breaching the collective agreement or its statutory obligations. It says it has also acted in good faith towards her.

The alleged issues with the university began in April 2020, when Wiles and her colleagues, Hendy and Kate Hannah, raised concerns about harassment from the public over their commentary.

The harassment escalated, Stewart said, and in a two-and-a-half year period, more than 60 emails were sent to the university about these safety concerns.

Wiles said the university only began putting safety measures in place at the end of 2021, over a year after she and colleagues first asked for protection.

The hearing continues.