Restrictions OK
Jurisdiction Employment Relations Authority - Auckland
Reference No AA 299/07
Hearing date 24 Aug 2007
Determination date 28 September 2007
Member R A Monaghan
Representation A Drake ; P Muir
Location Auckland
Parties Wackrow v Fonterra Co-Operative Group Ltd
Summary PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE - Whether grievance raised within 90 days - Respondent claimed letter from applicant not sufficient to raise grievance as contained no information to enable it to respond or address grievance - Although letter broadly worded, it did not create same difficulty for respondent as faced by employer in Creedy v Commissioner of Police (cited below) - Relevant act of dismissal readily identified - Case law not read as requiring employees raising grievance to put something to which employer could respond - Each time Court was considering on the facts whether clear to employer that employee aggrieved about particular matter in statutory sense of having a grievance, and wanted something done about it - Applicant conveyed this to respondent - Surrounding circumstances enabled identification of significant features of applicant’s sense of grievance - Fuller details not required - Grievance raised in time - Respondent’s submission action not commenced within three year limit rejected - Grievance raised within time
Result Orders accordingly ; Costs reserved
Main Category Raising PG
Statutes ECA First Schedule;ECA First Schedule cl4;ERA s114(1);ERA s114(2);ERA s114(6);Interpretation Act 1999 s35
Cases Cited Creedy v Commissioner of Police [2006] 1 ERNZ 517;Farmers Trading Limited v Opuariki [1998] 1 ERNZ 313;Goodall v Marigny (NZ) Limited [2000] 2 ERNZ 60, 69;McCarthy v Lydiard Shoe Company Limited unreported, Finnigan J, 10 November 1994 AEC 70/94;Ruebe-Donaldson v Sky Network Television (No 1) [2004] 2 ERNZ 83;Wackrow v Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited unreported, D King, 19 April 2004, AA 130/04;Wackrow v Fonterra Co-Operative Group Limited [2004] 1 ERNZ 350;Winstone Wallboards Limited v Samate [1993] 1 ERNZ 503
Number of Pages 11
PDF File Link: aa 299_07.pdf [pdf 39 KB]