Beware the personal grievance bullies

Opinion: Serial offenders are out there, says Michael Hempseed.

Serial person grievance takers who move from job to job threatening employers with PGS are a costly menace.

Many employers are overly fearful of employees filing a personal grievance (PG) in the Employment Court.

If found liable for something such as wrongful dismissal, employers can be fined anything from a few hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When confronted with a PG, employers will often think of the big payouts and panic, and do anything they can to avoid what they see as potential financial and reputational ruin.

However, if the employer is found to have been in the wrong, most payouts are between $2000 and $15,000.

In many cases there is no payout, so the fears are often unfounded because the Employment Court was designed to protect both employers and employees.

Unfortunately, some employees use employers’ fears of PGS to their own advantage. These are the serial Pgers – people who go from job to job threatening each new employer with a PG.

Rather than calling their bluff, many employers pay them considerable sums to go away and keep the matter quiet.

Warning signs

If an employee knows too much about the legal process in a misconduct investigation, there’s a high chance they’ve been there before.

Another warning sign may be their glowing written reference, which a previous employer refuses to discuss verbally.

One of my clients recently told me about paying a former staff member $20,000 after she threatened a PG over claims she had been bullied.

I was very surprised because I knew the owners well, thought they were great people, and really didn’t think they would bully a staff member.

When I asked a few more questions, they said they paid out because they were really troubled by the claim and didn’t want to risk any negative publicity.

At their request, I contacted a few of the previous companies the person had worked for.

After assuring them that their comments were off the record, I found four other employers who had been threatened with a PG for bullying this person.

Every single one of them paid her what she had asked for. All the businesses signed confidentiality agreements and gave her a glowing reference.

There was some evidence from the first company that she genuinely had been bullied and probably did deserve a payout. As far as I could tell the others were a complete fabrication.

This is a classic serial Pger. These are people who know how to play the system and unwitting employers are often caught off guard.

None of these cases was recorded in the official reports from the Employment Relations Authority (ERA).

How to respond

Serial Pgers will threaten to take you to the ERA and present a huge claim.

But they will pull out at the last minute because they want to be able to continue in secret, hiding behind confidentiality agreements.

I know of one woman who has been paid out at least seven times, and not one of these payments was listed in the ERA rulings because they were all confidential settlements.

The more often employers go for these settlements as a first option, the more serial Pgers will take advantage.

If someone has wronged you, you should not pay them out, then give them a good reference and allow them to move on to the next employer.

A glowing written reference, which a previous employer refuses to discuss verbally, might be a warning sign.

Michael Hempseed is a behaviour expert and managing director of specialist human resources company Employee Solution Service