Unjustified dismissal for poor process...

The Employment Relations Authority has upheld an employee’s claim that he was unjustifiably dismissed following a redundancy process.  The ERA concluded that the redundancy was genuine, however the employer failed to follow a proper process as it did not give the employee an opportunity to comment on the proposed redundancy before a decision was made.

The ERA awarded compensation of $12,000 for the hurt and humiliation suffered by the employee as a result of the poor process.  It refused to grant any lost wages.  This was firstly because the redundancy was genuine and therefore even if a proper process had been followed the employee would have been made redundant and therefore had not lost any wages.  Secondly, the employee had made no efforts to obtain other employment and therefore failed to mitigate his losses.

Alan Knowsley

Employment Lawyer Wellington