Government’s personal grievance changes will empower bad employers

Government's personal grievance changes will empower bad employers

• December 4, 2024December 4, 2024

NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting President Rachel Mackintosh is saying that the Government's proposal to further weight the scales in favour of employers in personal grievance cases will make workplace culture worse and harm efforts to create a fair playing field for workers.

"Making the personal grievance regime even tougher for workers will empower bad employers to think they can get away with mistreating their employees," said Mackintosh.

"These changes exacerbate power imbalances between employers and workers and will encourage employers to not take workplace complaints and accusations of misconduct seriously.

"The personal grievance process is already a tough regime for workers and under the current law, many workers lose their cases, and many workers have their remedies reduced, sometimes by significant amounts.

"What the Government seems to be saying is that if a worker has been found to have contributed to the problem in any way, then they should not receive any financial remedy. They are trying to tie the courts hands and prevent them from establishing justice.

"This is the latest in a sustained series of attacks on workers rights from Christopher Luxon's Government, who seem intent on making life harder for working people.

"The Prime Minister and his cabinet continue to demonstrate that they are governing only for employers and couldn't care less about the people who get up every day and go to work to keep this country running," said Mackintosh.