Remember to raise your personal grievance within 90 days…

An employee who worked on a farm managed by her husband has had her personal grievance claim for disadvantage rejected by the Employment Relations Authority.

The employee claims to have been disadvantaged by her employer when he brought visitors onto the farm and failed to disclose to her that they were a prospective new farm manager and his wife. The employee felt “gutted” and “ambushed” when she found out the truth. The employee raised her personal grievance 112 days after the incident because she had felt too traumatised to do so within the 90 day timeframe.

 The ERA held that an employee could apply to the Authority to raise a personal grievance outside of the 90 day timeframe, and that they would be successful if they proved the delay was caused by exceptional circumstances.

The ERA found that the employee was not so affected by the incident that she could not raise her personal grievance within 90 days. The ERA noted that in between the incident and raising her grievance the employee had helped draft and prepare her husband’s personal grievance.

The ERA also felt that at the time of the incident the employee had been acting in her capacity as the partner of the farm’s manager rather than in her capacity as an employee when she showed the visitor's wife around the farm house.

 

Alan Knowsley
Employment Lawyer Wellington