In a recent Employment Relations Authority case regarding a personal grievance for unjustified dismissal an employer has been ordered to pay over $12,000 lost wages (3 months), plus $8,000 compensation, after it dismissed an employee who it knew was only asserting what he believed to be his contractual rights.

The employer had originally paid overtime at time and a half but sought to change that to ordinary pay rates.  The Authority held that the time and a half pay was now a term of employment and could not be unilaterally changed.  Refusing to sign a new agreement with the altered rate was not serious misconduct.  Nor was the employee’s action in claiming travel time between work locations.  This was known to the company and should have been resolved by mediation not a disciplinary process.

The ERA held that the employee had not contributed to his dismissal because his position was a fair and reasonable one to take on the interpretation of his agreement.

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