The headline-grabbing change is people earning over $180,000 won’t be able to raise personal grievances at all. But the Bill’s other changes undermine everyone’s ability to get justice through a personal grievance.
WHAT REMEDIES DO FOR US
A personal grievance is a legal claim you can take against your employer if you believe your employer has fired you unfairly. If you win your personal grievance, the Employment Relations Authority can order “remedies,” like making your employer give you your job back or pay you compensation.
Remedies are an important check on employer power – our employers are less likely to treat us unfairly if they know they could face remedies. The Government’s Bill creates a loophole that even the most heinous employer can squeeze through to avoid remedies entirely.
REMOVING CHECKS ON EMPLOYER POWER
Under the new law, you’re not entitled to get your job back or to compensation if you “contributed to the situation that gave rise to the personal grievance.” What “contributed to” means is concerningly vague – there are very few instances where your employer can’t cast something you’ve done in a negative light.
That’s why we’re calling this the ‘Fire at Will Bill’. Your employer can fire you unjustly, knowing it won’t face any accountability if it can argue you “contributed” to the situation.
This creates a ridiculous double standard: you might be facing the immense pressure of losing your livelihood, but if you’re seen to put a foot wrong you lose any chance of justice. Meanwhile, your employer can treat you as badly as it pleases, completely off the hook for any coercion, oppression, or other unjust tactics we’ve seen used in these situations.
WHO BENEFITS FROM WEAKENED WORKER POWER
This double standard echoes the Government’s changes to pay equity, which made it virtually impossible for workers to make a successful claim, while employers keep benefiting from underpaying people for their labour.
Both law changes highlight the Government’s agenda to give our employers even more power over us. Weaker workers mean it’s easier for employers to extract more profit while paying lower wages. In the case of community and public services, it becomes easier to keep wages down to pay for tax cuts for the rich.
TIME TO TAKE THE POWER BACK
We want to have good relationships with our employers and to settle disputes fairly. But that requires a balance of power between us and our employers. Every erosion of our power is a blow to all of us.
So, when the Government takes away our power in one place, we must build power in another. One of the most effective areas we can do this is in our union.
When we’re alone, we’re vulnerable to the behaviours that this law enables. With the collective strength and support of the union, we have more power to fight back. And the more of us there are, the more power we’ll have.
