Abstract
Grievances are a contentious facet of contemporary employment relations and yet the amount of in-depth research evidence is limited. This study uses a real-time approach, following a set of New Zealand grievance cases as they proceeded through mediation. The public debate has focused on allegations of opportunist employees exploiting the system. Our findings, however, identify a group of employees who were seeking to remain with their employer, but who lacked influence and lost their jobs. In these situations the law was unable to provide employment protection, while employers had the dominant influence on these outcomes. These findings contribute to the international debate regarding the justice offered through newer grievance resolution systems.
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