Sacked workers have right to know why

Sacked workers have right to know why

Last year TEU members won an important legal case against Massey University that allowed workers who were being sacked during a restructuring of their job to see the information their employer was using to sack them.

But now the government's suite of proposed employment law changes includes a proposal to take that legal right away from workers, so they won’t know why they lose their job.

The High Court, in the Wrigley and Kelly v Massey University case, rightly noted that this employment right was an issue of procedural fairness.

All the government's proposed changes to employment law are abhorrent says TEU deputy secretary Nanette Cormack.

"They take away workers’ rights and they will mean people lose jobs, and that pay and conditions will be forced down even further."

"But this particular change takes away an important right that has meant many tertiary education institutions have had to treat some of their staff more fairly. Those employers now let individual staff know what the criteria for cutting jobs are and, in some instances, people’s jobs have been saved."

"While we agree that there are privacy implications around sharing information, and employees should not need to see information about other employees, they should be allowed to see all their own personal information, and information about why they are being sacked. Otherwise they have no way of knowing if they are being treated fairly or not," said Nanette Cormack.