When controversial employment advocate Allan Halse’s anti-workplace bullying company CultureSafe NZ was liquidated he continued his crusade to champion the rights of workers as the face of a new company.

But Halse did not own Maniototo Enterprises - trading as Hamilton Culturesafe - and now he has been ousted for what owner Jo Thomson claims was serious misconduct.

Halse denies any misconduct and has made counterclaims including invoicing Thomson for $488,600 worth of work he says he hasn’t been paid for since the launch of Hamilton Culturesafe in August 2022.

Now the pair are at loggerheads with Halse already running a new company, Cultureshift, and Thomson seeking a restraining order alleging Halse harassed her online by posting to his 25,000 Facebook followers that she had “stolen” clients.

Thomson claims as a result she has received threats and abusive phone calls.

“I’ve been called a ‘sack of s***’. I’ve had a couple of people phone up yelling at me.”

However, the police - backed by the Independent Police Conduct Authority - have dismissed the complaint of online harassment.

Halse claims Thomson is holding to ransom the files of 126 clients who sought Halse’s representation in employment disputes, after she cut his access to the company’s IT system.

But Thomson says clients signed up for representation with Hamilton Culturesafe therefore the company owns the files and any clients who want to continue with Halse need only supply written authority for the release of the file as per the requirements of the Privacy Act.

Halse confirmed Thomson had now released some part-files which he said were of no use.

There is also a squabble over $30,000, which Thomson claims was loaned by a third party to Halse to put toward a $67,335 debt to help him avoid bankruptcy in late 2022 as the result of a long-running dispute he had with a charity.

It was the same dispute that landed Halse’s company CultureSafe NZ in liquidation in August that year and resulted in him contracting for Thomson.

Halse says the $30,000 was loaned to the company and he would not be drawn on whether he used it to pay the bankruptcy debt.

However, in an email from Halse to the lender on October 20, 2022, seen by the Herald, Halse wrote in bold letters: “Your offer to cover the shortfall for my bankruptcy is greatly appreciated. Thank you.”

He went on to state the money could be deposited into the Hamilton Culturesafe account owned by Thomson and that he would create a loan document “so the debt is recorded”.

The company’s bank account transactions, seen by the Herald, show that the day after the loan was deposited, $67,335 was withdrawn and paid as “Halse settlement” to the lawyers’ firm pursuing bankruptcy on behalf of their client.

Thomson claims she dismissed Halse for bullying a staff member, sending confidential client files to someone outside the company, and removing files.

She believes Halse was already setting up Cultureshift before she terminated his access to the IT system a second time in early January, and that he was planning to leave and take the company’s clients with him.

Halse in turn claims Thomson had planned a coup to cut him out of the client cases and that he never bullied anyone though he admits to calling Thomson and another employment advocate helping her “wannabes”.

He has accused Thomson of defamation and asked for an apology.

Halse said the clients at the centre of the argument signed up for representation from him, not Thomson or another advocate, and pointed to emails he claimed were from two unnamed clients disgruntled with Thomson’s hold on their files.

“This has already delayed at least six ERA investigation hearings because I can’t get access to the files, but we’ll get there.”

Thomson claimed Halse was trying to bankrupt her.

Halse has billed Thomson for 68 weeks’ work, a total of $488,600, but Thomson claimed it was Halse’s choice not to have a contractor agreement with Maniototo Enterprises and she did not intend to pay the invoice.

Halse admitted he didn’t draw income while contracting to Maniototo Enterprises but that was to keep enough money spare to pay staff wages.

He denied he was trying to bankrupt Thomson and said, “All I want is the client files back”.

Meanwhile, Halse faces another bankruptcy hearing in the High Court at Hamilton in March.

Natalie Akoorie is a senior reporter based in Waikato and covering crime and justice nationally. Natalie first joined the Herald in 2011 and has been a journalist in New Zealand and overseas for 28 years, more recently covering health, social issues, local government, and the regions.