Employment restructuring processes trip up 74 per cent of personal grievance cases
Employers lost three quarters of the personal grievance claims brought against them when they restructured last year
because their processes were inadequate, says David Lowe, Employment Services Manager for the Employers & Manufacturers Association.
The finding is from the annual analysis of the decisions made by the Employment Relations Authority by EMA. The analysis
showed the number of grievances overall continued to grow but at a more moderate rate compared to previous years.
EMA assessed 591 claims for the year in review (2010) compared to 579 for the previous period (2009).
"Businesses are being discouraged from seeking to improve themselves because of the complicated procedural requirements
of our employment law," Mr Lowe said.
"Overall employers lost 69 per cent of all restructuring related personal grievances.
"A recent example was Massey University losing for not giving an employee's interview and assessment notes to another
employee who was also involved in the change.
"Making it hard for firms to change is of no benefit to anyone in the long-term," Mr Lowe said.
"Because of the employment challenges they must deal with, some businesses delay making any changes until they are faced
with a crisis and forced to take sudden action rather than adopt an incremental approach.
"This year the cost of an employer to defend themselves successfully was $9,880.
"The total bill for an employer who slipped up was an average of $34,411.
"For employees who win their cases, the average pay out is $11,023 after legal fees. Employees who lose are left with
an average bill of $13,508.
"'No win no fee' advocates who feed off the employer's defence costs and use them to extract payments from those who
have done nothing wrong are exacerbating the situation
"This practice of 'ambulance chasing' should be banned.
"Disadvantage claims which are usually used as a back-up to an otherwise doubtful dismissal claim continue to make up 42
per cent of all personal grievances; employers lose 64 per cent of them.
"The overall chance of success for employees was the same as the previous year at 59 per cent for employees and 41 per
cent for employers.
"The success rate for employers who are members of EMA was 61 per cent compared to a success rate of 37 per cent for
other employers in the region."
*Link here for tables: Personal grievance statistics tables for 2010 2010PGStatsforpublicrelease.pdf.