Ways to challenge being made redundant

By MARIE WILSON

Q. I think that I have been unfairly made redundant after I pointed out to my employers possible misrepresentations in their accounts. Please advise me as to the best procedure to follow. Should I hire a solicitor or go directly to the employment relations service?

A. Generally, the first place to go is to your own files to pull together your employment agreement and see what procedures, if any, are spelled out for redundancies and for personal grievances.

If you are challenging the validity of your redundancy, then you may need to follow the disputes procedure in your agreement. You may have a procedural issue with your redundancy and the way it was carried out. If you were precipitately let go after pointing this problem out, then the requirements of the redundancy process may not have been carried out.

The Employment Relations Service will be an excellent resource for assisting you. If you need to go beyond those services or have a more complex legal issue, consult a specialist solicitor.

To the best of my knowledge, if the redundancy was legitimate (they had to let someone go and they followed all the proper processes for making that decision), then you may find it very difficult to prove that your employer chose you because of your concern about the accounts.

If you are expressing these concerns because of your professional position, perhaps as an accountant or company secretary, then you might also seek advice and assistance from your professional association.

Response

A recent column asked for more information with respect to "whingers" from people who have had to deal with them.

How about the whinger's personal perspective?

You are probably dealing with a person who has one or more of the following features:

* Experienced upbringing or vocational training in a hypercritical environment.

* Has experienced disappointment in career progression.

* Has talents which can contribute significantly to the organisation but is unrecognised or has been ignored when suggestions or recommendations have been made; or, worse, suggestions have been taken up and credited to someone else.

* Has been on a career high and is now on a lower step.

* Is missing the final refinements in some social skills, which leads to some personal discomfort or concealed stress in the workplace.

* Is almost but not quite a misfit in the present employment, such as being an introvert in a basically extrovert environment and will therefore blame the environment (find fault with it) rather than accept that some of the problem is within.

* Confuses the search for improvement as a demand for perfection in all things.

* May be attention-seeking.

Suggestions: try listening harder to what "whingers" say. Because they are constantly complaining does not mean that what they have to say is any less relevant. Make a commitment to deal with some of the issues raised, and explain why others cannot or will not be dealt with.

Recognise their contribution. The wrong response is snapping back or ridiculing them in front of their peer group.

* Contributed by a 52-year-old New Zealander working in the Middle East who doesn't want to be named.

* Email us a question for Dr Marie Wilson to answer