Arranging the hearing

As a first step, the member will need to find out from their rep or companion when they are available to attend a hearing. If the employer proposes a date when the companion is not free, then under section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999, the employee is given one chance to suggest an alternative date and time, which must be reasonable and must be no later than five working days after the date proposed by the employer. The employer must postpone the hearing to the later date.

The employee’s 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 employer’s statutory obligation to agree to re-fix the hearing date due to the rep’s unavailability is only triggered on the first request to re-schedule the date.