Unjustified Dismissal New Zealand
Unjustified Dismissal New Zealand – Former RSPCA employee fired for serious misconduct ERA awards $20,000, procedural flaws in dismissal,
A lesson for employers to ensure that employees are afforded procedural fairness in matters that can result in serious disciplinary action & termination of employment. Link to article
The New Zealand Employment Relations Authority awarded a former NZ RSPCA employee $20,000 after ruling that her dismissal was unjustified.
The employee was dismissed for serious misconduct, it is important to note that in addition procedural fairness employers must show that the dismissal reached the threshold of serious misconduct, in Australia this is defined in s1.07 Fair Work Regulations
It is the role of the investigator to ensure procedural fairness in that the respondent is;
Provided with enough information to allow them to provide a response, this is commonly known as the right to know.
Secondly that the respondent is given a fair opportunity to respond to the allegations, including sufficient time to consider the response and/or the opportunity to respond in writing before or after the interview.
In addition it can be argued that as part of right to be heard other information provided by the respondent should also be taken into account and also consideration given to interviewing witnesses nominated by the respondent .
Conducting a workplace investigation that may result in the termination of employment is a complex matter and should not be treated lightly, after all people’s futures and livelihoods are on the line.
I strongly recommend that if an employer does not have experience in conducting workplace investigations, especially complaint or incident analysis, the planning of the investigation and the planning and conducting of investigative interviews and finally the careful analysis of all the evidence that the employer should consider two potential courses of action.
1. Outsource the investigation to a professional experienced and qualified external workplace investigator.
2. Train the staff responsible for conducting the workplace investigation in best practise investigation processes.
Not sure what to do, AWPTI can assist you with full investigation services.
We also provide best practice workplace investigation training. We can conduct the course internally for you with a fixed rate with no limit on attendees or I also conduct open courses.
Details of the training an investigation services can be at www.awpti.com.au
The next open course will be run on the 10th and 11th of March 2025, places are limited, there are three places available for this course details are here – https://awpti.com.au/conducting-workplace-investigations-open-course/
