The Employment Relations Authority has dismissed a claim
for an unjustified dismissal because the employee failed to raise a personal
grievance in relation to the unjustified dismissal within the 90 day time
limit. The Authority also refused to
extend the time for filing such a grievance, because there were no exceptional
circumstances in the failure to file the claim within time.
The employee had raised a grievance over unpaid wages and
had gone to the Labour Inspectors at the Ministry of Business, Innovation &
Employment for assistance with the unpaid wages claim. However, the employee had not mentioned that
he was leaving the employer’s employment due to the unpaid wages, but rather
said he was resigning because he had obtained another job elsewhere.
The ERA held that this was not sufficient for raising a
personal grievance in relation to the claim of unjustified dismissal for
non-payment of wages.
To raise a personal grievance the employee must state what
their grievance is and what they want the employer to do about it. That did not occur in this case.
Alan
Knowsley
Employment
Lawyer Wellington
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