An employee working as a receptionist
resigned after her employer refused to advance her sick leave entitlement after
her husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The Employment Relations Authority
rejected the employee’s personal grievance claim for constructive and
unjustified dismissal.
The ERA held that the employer’s conduct
did not have the deliberate and dominant purpose of coercing the employee to resign.
The ERA noted that there was no
provision in the parties’ employment agreement that required the employer to
advance sick leave. Instead, the only way the employee could take sick leave in
advance was with the agreement of her employer.
The employer did not agree to advance
her sick leave because the employee had annual leave available. The ERA noted
that it is not unusual for employers to require annual leave to be exhausted
before they consider any advancement of sick leave. This is especially so when
employees are using their sick leave to care for others, as they risk having no
sick leave available for themselves if they fall ill.
It is important to remember that while you
may feel that your employer is being uncompassionate or unsympathetic, their decisions
may still be lawful and one which a fair and reasonable employer could make in
all of the circumstances.
Alan Knowsley
Employment Lawyer Wellington
No comments:
Post a Comment