A personal grievance claim can result in a stressful time for an employee and their employer, often resulting in a monetary payout. Photo / Getty Images
A personal grievance claim can result in a stressful time for an employee and their employer, often resulting in a monetary payout. Photo / Getty Images
The Rotorua Lakes Council has spent $109,000 in the past six years on personal grievance payouts, while the Bay of Plenty Regional Council would not say.
However, a barrister who specialises in employment law says parties cannot be made to say sorry.
Rotorua Lakes Council had seven personal grievance claimsfrom 2017 to 2021, involving five job losses.
Rotorua Lakes Council payouts were spread across seven personal grievance claims from 2017 to 2021, involving five job losses.
In information obtained by the Rotorua Daily Post through the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, five of the claims resulted in settlements but none of the seven were substantiated.
Since 2017, just two claims resulted in no payment being made. Of the $109,000 distributed among the rest, $30,500 went toward legal costs.
The Rotorua Daily Post also asked the council what impacts personal grievances had on the day-to-day running of a council; if costs were generally budgeted for and if not, where was the money found; and whether it viewed seven cases in six years as a reasonable number of personal grievance claims.
At the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, six personal grievance claims were made since 2017.
The Rotorua Lakes Council building. Photo / Andrew Warner
Karen Aspey, general manager of people and leadership, said one claim was received outside the 90-day timeframe allowed, so it was not accepted by the council.
Aspey said another four were resolved on a strictly confidential basis, the fifth was not pursued further once it was considered as “being out of time”, and a sixth did not result in any resolution.
“One employee’s employment ended as an indirect result of the personal grievance claims noted above,” Aspey said.
None of the claims were substantiated or resulted in any apologies or court processes.
The council refused to break down any further detail of the claims, including how much money was paid out to the four “resolved” claims.
The council cited “necessary” needs to withhold the information to prevent potential prejudice of its commercial position in the employment market; protect public interest; and enable the council to carry on without prejudice in negotiations.
In Tauranga, the city council spent $166,000 on personal grievance claims which resulted in 18 job losses. In neighbouring Western Bay of Plenty, the council paid $20,000 on two claims.
Bay of Plenty barrister Mark Beech said that given the size of local councils, the number of personal grievances resolved was not surprising, especially if any had gone through structural changes.
“Councils also have large diverse workforces, so they are complex workplaces.”
Beech, who specialises in commercial litigation, employment disputes and other workplace disputes, said he believed many council employees would be well-remunerated - particularly in management roles that may account for the quantum of some of the settlements.
Mark Beech specialises in employment law. Photo / John Borren
In reference to the lack of apology, Beech said there was no ability to legally compel a party to apologise. However, there were, in general, many records of settlements that could contain apologies or acknowledgments that “things could have been dealt with differently”.
“The fact that several cases didn’t proceed to court is perhaps testament to the effectiveness of the employers’ dispute resolution processes and/or the effectiveness of the... mediations. The settlement rates could also indicate that the parties do not wish to incur the costs associated with litigation and or assume the litigation risk,” Beech said.
“Based on my experience, many parties simply chose to enter commercially pragmatic arrangements - especially if the employment relationship has ended.”
Beech said his personal observation was that personal grievance processes could be stressful for both the employer and employees, as employment litigation largely involved relationship issues including reputation, performance, value, treatment, and fault.
The Public Services Association union regularly supports members experiencing employment relationship problems and represents them through what its boss said could be a stressful process to resolve disputes.
National sector leader Ian Gordon said these could range from low-level issues through to matters requiring a more formal personal grievance such as dismissal, discrimination, sexual harassment and adverse treatment.
Gordon said it was common for disputes and personal grievances to be resolved by agreement, including at meditation - which can involve some form of compensatory payment in lieu of wages and contractual and statutory entitlements.
“Mediation is the primary early-stage resolution process under law. Less common is for matters to go to the Employment Relations Authority or Employment Court,” Gordon said.
“Generally speaking, the amounts paid by these organisations - over the time period indicated/numbers indicated - are not out of the ordinary and it’s likely that some of these settlements were lodged as personal grievances and resolved as settlements arrived at through a confidential mediation process.”
Personal grievances are typically made if an employee feels there has been an unjustified dismissal, unjustified advantage (actions an employer has unjustifiably taken to put an employee at a disadvantage), discrimination, racial harassment, sexual harassment, or duress.
