dealing with a personal grievance

​Most managers dread getting a legal letter from a current or past employee.  Employment lawyers like to quote legislation and use emotive words to make you doubt your decision making and actions.  Almost all managers I have worked with in the past have an emotional reaction to these types of letters and most are anxious or worried about what it means.

We have all see the news headlines about companies paying out thousands of dollars to employees after losing a personal grievance claim.  Just this month Ballance Agri-nutrients was ordered to pay a previous employee around $30,000 in compensation for an unfair dismissal.   In reality about 90% of personal grievances are settled in mediation and do not make the papers. 

So, you’ve got the legal letter, what do you do now?

The first step is to take deep breath and look at the facts of the letter, then gather the evidence you may have relating to their employment or what happened.  Write down your version of events with as much detail as you can remember. 
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If you have the time you can research the law and see what may have gone wrong, but most people just want someone else to help.  It will usually only take us between 3 to 4 hours to research and respond to a personal grievance in the first instance.  The earlier you get help, the quicker the matter can be resolved.  Call us today to see what we can do for you. 

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