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103A: Test of justification
or “This explains how to decide if an employer acted fairly when dismissing or disciplining an employee.”
You could also call this:

“A person who controls and directs a worker can be added to a complaint about unfair treatment at work.”

You can join a controlling third party to a personal grievance case if certain conditions are met. This applies when you have raised a personal grievance with your employer and applied to the Employment Relations Authority to resolve it. The grievance must relate to something that happened while you were working under the control or direction of a controlling third party.

You or your employer can ask the Authority or the court to join the controlling third party to the case. The Authority or court must agree to this if they are satisfied that the controlling third party was properly notified, and there’s a good case that they are indeed a controlling third party whose actions caused or contributed to your grievance.

The Authority or court can also decide on their own to join a controlling third party to the case at any point. If a controlling third party is joined, the Authority or court might tell you, your employer, and the controlling third party to try to solve the problem through mediation.

Remember, if you want to include a controlling third party in your personal grievance case, you need to notify them properly first.

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Next up: 104: Discrimination

or “Unfair treatment at work because of who you are or what you believe in”
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Part 9 Personal grievances, disputes, and enforcement
Personal grievances

103BJoining controlling third party to personal grievance

  1. This section applies if—

  2. an employee has—
    1. raised a personal grievance in accordance with section 114; and
      1. applied to the Authority to resolve a personal grievance with the employee’s employer; and
      2. the personal grievance relates to an action that is alleged to have occurred while the employee was working under the control or direction of a controlling third party.

        1. The employee or the employer, or both, may apply to the Authority or the court to join the controlling third party to the proceedings to resolve the personal grievance.

        2. The Authority or the court must grant the application to join a controlling third party if the Authority or the court is satisfied—

        3. that the requirement to notify the controlling third party in accordance with section 115A has been complied with; and
          1. that an arguable case has been made out—
            1. that the party to be joined to the proceedings is a controlling third party; and
              1. that the party’s actions caused or contributed to the personal grievance.

              2. The Authority or the court may, at any stage of the proceedings, of its own motion join a controlling third party to the proceedings by order.

              3. If the Authority or the court joins the controlling third party to the proceedings, the Authority or the court must consider whether to direct the employer, the employee, and the controlling third party to use mediation services to seek to resolve the personal grievance.

              Notes
              • Section 103B: inserted, on , by section 6 of the Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Act 2019 (LI 2019 No 36).