Do We Need To Review Personal Grievance Laws?

The Dom Post today says the Government is reviewing our current personal grievance laws. There is supposedly plenty of anecdotal evidence showing how hard the rules are to follow, and how difficult it is for businesses to get rid of bad employees. People think this is so in part because our biggest newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, has a pro-employer bias, and frequently runs articles about greedy employees taking their bosses to the cleaners.

So is there a problem? I have heard many employment lawyers say it is quite easy for a business to get rid of a bad employee, provided the correct procedure is followed. Many instances of unjustified dismissal arise because an employer has simply fired someone on the spot, without going through the appropriate warning procedure, or has failed to give the employee the opportunity to have a say on the conduct at issue.

It's always popular to blame the lawyers too. From the Dom Post article:

Business NZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly said businesses had complained for years that the system was too bureaucratic and seemed to "emphasise form over substance".

They were also concerned about "ambulance-chasing lawyers" that lodged claims with no real justification to pressure employers.

Lawyers in this country don't actually chase ambulances, because our ACC system precludes people from suing for personal injury. So the pejorative term "ambulance-chasing lawyers" isn't helpful. And we should expect the head of a business lobby group to be in favour of making it harder for employees to sue. He'd be doing a rubbish job for his team if he said "actually, the laws are fine as they are". because employment laws have to balance the rights of workers with the rights of employers. Each side wants its own way, and the legislature has to find a politically acceptable middle ground.

I'm not against a review in principle, because things can always be improved. But I wonder what the real motivation behind this review is. When the justification for the review is anecdotal evidence that employers find it hard to live with the rules, you have to wonder. If there is in fact no major problem, then this is pure politics. And, National is not exactly the party of the workers, so it's not hard to see whose vote they are after.

Thankfully this is just a review. John Key's government is not very good at actually doing anything, so nothing may come of this.