Arranging for a companion
[ch 7: page 43]As a first step, the member should find out when their rep or companion is available. If the employer proposes a date when the companion is not free, then under section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 (ERA 99) the employee gets one chance to suggest an alternative date and time, which must be reasonable and no later than five working days after the date proposed by the employer. The employer must postpone the hearing to the later date. A collective agreement may allow for more flexibility than this. The postponement request must be reasonable. For example, suggesting an alternative date when a manager is known to be unavailable is unlikely to be seen as reasonable.
The statutory duty to reschedule due to the rep’s unavailability only applies to the first request, not to any subsequent requests.
There is information on the right to be accompanied in Chapter 8.