Personal grievance for unjustified dismissal out of time…

The Employment Relations Authority has dismissed a claim for an unjustified dismissal because the employee failed to raise a personal grievance in relation to the unjustified dismissal within the 90 day time limit.  The Authority also refused to extend the time for filing such a grievance, because there were no exceptional circumstances in the failure to file the claim within time.

The employee had raised a grievance over unpaid wages and had gone to the Labour Inspectors at the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment for assistance with the unpaid wages claim.  However, the employee had not mentioned that he was leaving the employer’s employment due to the unpaid wages, but rather said he was resigning because he had obtained another job elsewhere.

The ERA held that this was not sufficient for raising a personal grievance in relation to the claim of unjustified dismissal for non-payment of wages.

To raise a personal grievance the employee must state what their grievance is and what they want the employer to do about it.  That did not occur in this case.

Alan Knowsley

Employment Lawyer
Wellington