Grievances raised in 2021 letters put the 2025 claim outside the three-year limit

An employee dismissed in December 2021 lodged a claim with the Authority in March 2025, and the former employer said the personal grievances were out of time. Section 114(6) sets a three-year limit on commencing an action, running from the date the grievance was raised, and the Authority recorded no express power to extend it, citing the Employment Court in [2018] NZEmpC 128. Everything turned on whether letters sent during a disciplinary process in November and December 2021 had already raised the grievances.

The employee argued the letters were responses to allegations and requests for records, not yet fully particularised grievances. Applying the raising test from [2006] ERNZ 517 and [2019] NZEmpC 132, the Authority read the communications in totality and found they had raised disadvantage and unjustified dismissal grievances, putting the March 2025 filing outside three years. A protected-disclosure grievance first appearing in August 2025 was outside the 90-day period, and leave was declined. Good-faith, contractual and wage-arrears claims proceed; costs reserved.

How might an employee's detailed written response to disciplinary allegations bear on when a personal grievance was raised?

What separates a communication that conveys the substance of a complaint from one that signals only an intention to complain?

[2026] NZERA 650