Employees have a ninety-day time frame within which to raise a personal grievance. In the circumstance of an employee being paid in lieu of notice, a recent Employment Relations Authority determination found that the ninety-day time limit did not start on the date the employer told the employee she was being dismissed, but several days later. In a letter dated 16 January, the employer notified the employee that she was being made redundant and being paid in lieu of notice. The letter also specified the date of the dismissal as being that same date, ie 16 January. However, despite the clarity of the letter, the Authority found that dismissal did not come to the employee’s attention until later. The employee’s dismissal was surrounded by a number of confusing events, including her payment in lieu of notice not being paid until several days later and the employee not becoming aware of such payment until 28 January. It was on that date that the Authority considered the employee knew she had been dismissed and from which the ninety-day time frame commenced.

TKG v OEN

Reproduced with permission of Wolters Kluwer