Personal grievances include claims of unjustified dismissal, unjustified disadvantage, sexual or racial harassment or discrimination.
See section 103 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 for the full list of personal grievances.
An unjustified dismissal claim can be where an employee feels he or she has been unjustifiably sacked or it could be a claim of what is called constructive dismissal. This is when an employee feels he or she has been forced to resign.
Unjustified disadvantage grievances are sometimes raised for bullying.
The Employment Relations Act sets out how personal grievances are to be resolved including by mediation and Employment Relations Authority investigations.
An aggrieved employee has only 90 days from when his or her claim arose or first came to his or her attention within which to raise a personal grievance claim (or 12 months in respect of a personal grievance of sexual harassment).
We are able to raise personal grievance claims on behalf of employee clients and respond to personal grievance claims on behalf of employer clients. We are also able to represent our clients in the relevant judicial forums, including, for example, the Employment Relations Authority.
Recent developments in dealing with personal grievances include private mediations, facilitations or restorative practices.
We strongly encourage parties to consider these less adversarial processes rather than going straight to issuing proceedings. We are keen to see more use of restorative practices where possible. The focus of these can be on fixing the problems in the workplace rather than having someone leave.