Poor redundancy process costs $26,000

The Employment Relations Authority has upheld a personal grievance claim following a redundancy.  The General Manager of a mobile retail company was made redundant following two redundancy processes.

The first process was unfair because it gave the General Manager only less than 24 hours to respond to the proposed redundancy and the employer failed to provide any supporting financial information to the employee.

The second redundancy process did provide financial information but was also not conducted in a fair way.  At the time of the process the employee was on sick leave and did not engage in the consultation process.  The ERA held that the process was started too quickly and there should have been more time for responses from the employee. 

The ERA awarded over $19,000 in lost wages and $7,000 compensation for the humiliation suffered from the poor process.

Alan Knowsley
Employment Lawyer
Wellington