Evidence for unjustified dismissal personal grievance claims: what to collect

Personal grievance outcomes often come down to evidence. If the story is "your word against theirs", the side with documents, screenshots, dates, and consistent notes usually has the advantage.

Raising a Personal Grievance

As an employee or ex-employee when you raise a personal grievance claim with your employer, you are simply advising them that they have made an error regarding your employment rights in some way and that you want it rectified or you want to be compensated for their error. That error could be an unjustified dismissal, unfair treatment in the workplace, a pay issue or any of the many issues you can find advice for on our website.

Evidence Supports your Claim

When raising a personal grievance you must advise your employer what they have done wrong, more importantly you must be able to show by their actions, inactions, and correspondence that they have indeed done what you are claiming they have done. In the multitude of cases we have worked on over the last 5 years only once has an employer in a confidential mediation admitted they made a mistake and wanted to fix it. In practise this is a rather sad state however it showcases to us that if an employer is not willing to admit any wrongdoing, they may be willing to lie or omit evidence that does not support their position.

Why You Need to Keep Evidence

You may claim that you were unjustifiably dismissed when your employer called you late on Friday night and told you over the phone you were dismissed and not to come back to work. If you keep a record of your phone call, including date, time and duration and send your employer a message or an email and put in writing your version of the conversation ASAP they are less likely to be able to dispute it. Unfortunately, we often see employees who do not address a dismissal straight away and when the employer is later questioned the employer claims the employee resigned.

If you lose your cell phone with messages and call logs proving your side of the story you may lose the evidence that was needed to win your case.

Put Conversations in Writing

It's important that you document verbal conversation and meetings. If you are having issues at work and every conversation has been verbal and you do not follow those conversations up with an email outlining your concerns or what was agreed to even if you think they have been resolved, further down the track if your situation got worse and you want to do something about it, they could deny those conversations. If you put the basics of those conversations in writing and they do not reply, then you could claim they are true because they were unrefuted.

Employers will not provide evidence for you

An employer who is facing litigation for a personal grievance will be unwilling to provide any information that strengthens your case and weakens their case. It is your responsibility to ensure that the evidence you wish to rely on is kept. If you have emails on your work computer or messages and call logs on a work phone that you think support your case you must make a copy for yourself, your employer will not provide these. Your employer may have an obligation to provide certain information but 99 times out of 100 they will not, and there is nothing that can be done to make them. We have had employers who have been directed by the court to provide information and still do not, and what they may get in exchange is a penalty that is often awarded partly to the crown, not fully to our employee clients.

All Evidence Matters

When we work on a case a key event timeline is created in unison with evidence to create an exact outline of what happened in support of your claim. We require all information; you may think something is not relevant to your case however it may prove something that you had not even thought of. A text message to a co-worker asking if they want a pie from the bakery may show that you were working on a day your boss said you weren't. A month-long messenger conversation with a manager may show that there was a good relationship between you and them when your employer is claiming you not fitting into the team. All evidence matters.

Get Support

Getting support from an advocate promptly can help to ensure that all evidence is gathered, and it is not lost. We can advise you of things you need to ask your employer to strengthen your case and the things that you should never say because they have contradictory meanings.

The Key to Success

Every piece of evidence is a puzzle piece and once we have all the pieces, we can assemble the full picture. A full picture helps to prove your versions of events are more favourable and that your version is the truth bringing us one step closer to success in achieving a resolution or compensation.

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