No, it would not have excused him from bypassing the internal dispute resolution procedures before resigning. The purpose of the grievance procedure is to first exhaust all internal channels before referring a dispute externally to the Council. This is regardless of whether he thinks it would be futile to do so. It would defeat the purpose of the grievance procedure if an employee could simply rely on his or her subjective opinion to bypass the procedures.
Ironically, it would have helped Matjan in the grievance hearing if he had produced tangible evidence, say in an email, that his employer had threatened to punish him if he lodged a grievance. And it would have been compelling evidence in his subsequent constructive dismissal case to show that he was forced to resign due to intolerable working conditions.
