CAA secret recordings: Staff complaints spark internal investigation
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is investigating after complaints were made about a manager secretly recording conversations with staff.
The Herald understands staff had to use the Official Information Act (OIA) to unearth the details - although the CAA would not confirm this.
“CAA can confirm that we have been made aware of an internal matter where several phone conversations between a manager and their staff were recorded without the knowledge of those staff members,” a spokeswoman for the authority told the Herald.
The spokeswoman said secretly recording workers is not normal practice and the behaviour is being “taken seriously and addressed” through an internal process.
The authority would not say how many staff were recorded, why it occurred, or when exactly CAA chief executive and director Kane Patena became aware of the issue.
Sources at the regulator told the Herald there’s growing dissatisfaction among staff with how the matter has been handled.
“The issue has raised wider concerns about trust in leadership, integrity, and the safety of speaking up inside the organisation,” a CAA worker told the Herald.
Associate Transport Minister James Meager has confirmed he received information about the issue last week.
“My expectation is that recording individuals without their consent or knowledge is not acceptable business practice. I understand CAA share that expectation,” he told the Herald.
He said it was an operational matter for the CAA to deal with, but he had asked its board to provide him with a briefing on what has occurred and why, under the “no surprises” rules.
The Herald has been told information from the recordings may have been used against at least one employee.
Neither Meager nor the authority would confirm this when asked specifically if recordings were used in a way that could have disadvantaged any members of staff.
The authority said that claim would form part of its internal employment and organisational investigation.
“We are not in a position to comment on specific details ... as these are matters being considered as part of those processes,” a spokeswoman said.
‘Corrosive of trust’
Human rights and criminal lawyer Michael Bott told the Herald that secretly recording workers in any organisation will erode trust.
He said while it’s not illegal to record a conversation if you’re a party to that conversation, most workers would be “horrified” to learn conversations they thought were private were being taped.
He said the potential for recordings to be misrepresented or taken out of context was huge.
“A person might volunteer something in a taped conversation that could then be used against another employee or themselves.”
Bott said it was “deeply troubling” that a manager, in a position of authority, would covertly record conversations with staff. He said behaviour like that would undermine “a good faith relationship” between a manager and their employees.
He said it raised serious questions about culture at the CAA.
“Employees have a right to feel aggrieved, and this is probably an indication that organisation has some rot starting to set in.”
In 2024, an investigation by the Herald exposed concerns about a “toxic” work environment where complaints and concerns were mismanaged and staff felt isolated.
At the time, whistleblowers feared public safety would be compromised amid changes to the agency’s safety investigation and enforcement teams.
An independent review later found staff feared speaking up, and self-preservation was resulting in “territory grabs, upward bullying and a siege mentality” at the organisation.
That review was preceded by a damning ministerial inquiry report published in 2020 which revealed a culture of bullying and harassment likened to an “old boys’ club”.
Poor behaviour was allowed to occur because of leadership failures, according to findings released at the time.
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year at the NZ Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald’s video team in July 2024.