School leaver apprentice not disadvantaged in workplace…

An employee who worked as an electronic technician has had his personal grievance claim for unjustified disadvantage rejected by the Employment Relations Authority.

The employee claimed that he was bullied in his workplace as he was consistently shouted at, received unwarranted criticism and had nasty remarks directed at him on a daily basis. He raised his concerns with his employer following the completion of his apprenticeship whereon his employer became angry and accused him of lying, and shouted at his parents who were present. The employee noted that this was further bullying. The ERA held that these events did not establish unjustified disadvantage in his employment.

The employee also claimed to have been disadvantaged by his employer’s failure to complete annual wage reviews and by paying him low wages. The ERA rejected this claim and found that during his four and a half years of employment the employee had five pay increases and his hourly pay rate was always at or above minimum wage.

The employee also claimed that he was under paid during his employment as he worked on average 2 hours extra every week. The ERA held that the employee was conscientious and valued high levels of customer service which led him to work over time but reasoned that this was not a valid justification for his claim.

The ERA rejected the employee’s claims for compensation for the loss of his job and for the possibility of becoming a future owner of the company. The ERA held that his resignation was voluntary as he did not claim that he was constructively dismissed. The ERA found that comments made to the employee about one day owning the business were meant to be aspirational, and were said to encourage the employee and did not imply a promise of future ownership.

The ERA did note that there were some inaccuracies in the employer’s records of the employee’s annual and sick leave and concluded that the employee was owed 36 days of annual leave. The ERA awarded $4,440 less PAYE for owing annual leave.