Being the subject of disciplinary action is one of the most stressful situations, particularly if dismissal is a possible outcome. You may feel a mixture of emotions that affect you not only at work but also at home and having an advocate on your side is highly recommended. Employers have a contractual obligation to follow their Disciplinary process and if they don’t have one, to follow legislative requirements. If they don’t, an employee can raise a Personal Grievance. If you are the subject of a disciplinary process, contact us to arrange a consultation, we’ll listen, review the situation and recommend next steps.
Your employer, or past employer, has an obligation to adhere to the terms and conditions of your employment agreement. If you feel you’ve been unfairly treated, or dismissed, you can raise a personal grievance within 90 days of the occurrence unless your employer agrees to you raising one outside of this time frame. We can help you every step of the way in this process and advise you of the best likely outcome. Grievances can often be resolved through a settlement agreement without ending up in the Employment Relations Authority. We can facilitate this for you.
Accepted a new job or reviewing proposed new terms and conditions from your current employer? We can review your employment agreement before you sign and advise you of any red flags you may need to consider.
Bullying and/or harassment can occur at all levels in an organisation. The first thing we will ask you to do, if you’re not already, is to keep a detailed record of each alleged incident. Record the date, time, incident and any witnesses. This is critical as it can demonstrate a pattern of behaviour over time, which is critical to a successful outcome. If you raise a formal complaint, the witnesses will likely be interviewed to verify your version. Keep any electronic examples (eg. threatening emails), voicemails and all other evidence. Letting your employer know you feel bullied or harassed by one or more people you work with can be scary and intimidating, particularly if they are your supervisor. We will support you through this process.
If your employer is proposing redundancy, or you have recently been made redundant, you must legally be consulted to review the proposal, provide input and your input must be genuinely considered. Your employer must redeploy you if a similar role is available. An employer can’t use redundancy to ‘get rid of you’. If you feel your redundancy isn’t legal and/or genuine, we can help. Perhaps there is an opportunity to redeploy you into a new role and your employer is resisting this. You may also have grounds to raise a personal grievance and seek compensation.