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Electrocuted employee’s dismissal justified…

The Employment Relations Authority has rejected a personal grievance claim for unjustified dismissal from an employee sacked after he electrocuted himself at work.

The employee was working on electrical lines and failed to comply with the various safety requirements about checking that the power was off before commencing work.  The employee had wrongly assumed that the power had already been shut off instead of checking himself as required.

The ERA held that the employer was entitled to find the failures to follow safety procedures could not be condoned and they could not rely on him to follow the procedures in the future.

This may be a bit surprising as I would assume being electrocuted would concentrate the mind on being more careful from then on, and that he would perhaps be the employee least likely to breach safety rules in future.