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114: Raising personal grievance
or “ How to tell your boss about a problem at work and when you need to do it ”
You could also call this:

“The law allows extra time to raise a work complaint in special situations, like if you were too upset to do it earlier.”

You should know about some special situations where you can still raise a personal grievance even if you didn’t do it within the normal time limit. These situations are called exceptional circumstances.

One situation is if you were so upset or traumatised by what happened that you couldn’t think about raising a grievance within the usual time.

Another is if you asked someone else to raise the grievance for you, but they didn’t do it when they were supposed to.

If your employment agreement doesn’t explain how to solve workplace problems, that’s also considered an exceptional circumstance.

Lastly, if your employer fired you but didn’t give you a written explanation why, that’s another exceptional circumstance.

In any of these cases, you might still be able to raise a personal grievance even if you’re past the normal deadline.

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Next up: 115A: Notifying controlling third party of personal grievance

or “Telling someone else who might be responsible for a problem at work”
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Part 9 Personal grievances, disputes, and enforcement
Personal grievances

115Further provision regarding exceptional circumstances under section 114

  1. For the purposes of section 114(4)(a), exceptional circumstances include—

  2. where the employee has been so affected or traumatised by the matter giving rise to the grievance that he or she was unable to properly consider raising the grievance within the applicable employee notification period under section 114; or
    1. where the employee made reasonable arrangements to have the grievance raised on his or her behalf by an agent of the employee, and the agent unreasonably failed to ensure that the grievance was raised within the required time; or
      1. where the employee's employment agreement does not contain the explanation concerning the resolution of employment relationship problems that is required by section 54 or section 65, as the case may be; or
        1. where the employer has failed to comply with the obligation under section 120(1) to provide a statement of reasons for dismissal.

          Notes
          • Section 115(a): amended, on , by section 7 of the Employment Relations (Extended Time for Personal Grievance for Sexual Harassment) Amendment Act 2023 (2023 No 28).