The Employment Relations Authority can award penalties against an employer where the employer has repeatedly failed to pay wages and minimum entitlements.
Employer employment law help for Personal Grievance responses, disciplinary process, redundancy, MBIE mediation, ERA claims, settlement strategy and Employment Court risk.
Received a Personal Grievance, facing a disciplinary issue, restructuring, investigation, mediation or ERA claim? Start with the problem below and deal with the process before the decision is locked in.
Employer disputes are usually decided by what was known, what was put to the employee, the documents relied on, the employee's response, the reasons for the decision, and whether the process was fair. A legitimate concern can still become an expensive dispute if an investigation, consultation, suspension, warning, or dismissal is rushed.
Use this hub for Personal Grievance responses, disciplinary and performance matters, suspension, redundancy, mediation, ERA defence, and related employer-side issues. If the decision has not yet been made, that is usually the best time to check the documents and process.
The first response matters. A poor or emotional response can create admissions, narrow the employer's later defence, or make the employer look unreasonable. A disciplined response can stabilise the dispute and improve the chance of early resolution. See our specific guide on Personal Grievance response for employers NZ, and our older practical article on responding to a Personal Grievance.
Employers often create the problem before the employee raises a formal claim. The danger point is usually the moment the employer moves from suspicion or frustration to a final decision. Before that happens, the employer should check whether the employee has been told the allegations, given the relevant information, allowed a real opportunity to respond, and had that response genuinely considered.
For more targeted guidance, read the pages on dismissal and disciplinary process for employers, disciplinary investigations for employers, and redundancy advice for employers.
Most employment disputes resolve through negotiation or MBIE mediation. If they do not, they may proceed to the Employment Relations Authority and, in some cases, the Employment Court. Employers need a coherent position early: what happened, what documents prove it, what risk exists, what settlement range is commercially sensible, and what result justifies the cost of continuing.
We help employers prepare a defensible paper trail, present the evidence coherently, and manage risk at each stage. The key is to know whether the real battleground is misconduct, redundancy, wages, an investigation defect, medical incapacity, bullying allegations, consultation, or the employer's own communications.
A common employer shock is that even when the employer wins in the ERA, recovering actual legal spend from the employee is usually limited. For example, one employer incurred an invoice of $35,396.14 and the costs award was $6,500. Read more about employer ERA costs and what you can really recover.
That reality should inform strategy. Employers should consider settlement early, use realistic offers, preserve Calderbank arguments where appropriate, and avoid spending more on the fight than the dispute justifies.
Settlement terms matter. In practice, parties can agree and record in an s 149 settlement that the employer pays a defined contribution to advocacy costs directly, supported by a GST invoice, rather than paying a lump sum to the employee and hoping it is passed on. Read our page on s 150A payments and GST invoices at settlement.
Some older employer pages still matter because they target specific recurring problems. These include workplace investigations and investigators, penalties for unpaid wages, Federated Farmers employment contract disputes, and unreasonable employment lawyer costs.
The Employment Relations Authority can award penalties against an employer where the employer has repeatedly failed to pay wages and minimum entitlements.
The New Zealand Covid-19 Wage Subsidy is designed to subsidise the employer in paying wages to their employees. Breaches of the Wages Protection Act.
Employers are often shocked that even when they win in the Employment Relations Authority (ERA), recovering actual legal spend from an employee is usually limited. The starting point is the ERA daily tariff and costs are a contribution, not an indemnity.
The New Zealand employment law scene still suffers with its unlicenced employment investigators. Many untrained workplace investigators who front themselves primarily as Human Resources consultants are holding themselves out as being investigator to the employer in employment investigations where they receive valuable consideration for doing so. A recent Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority (PSPLA) decision has confirmed the restriction on this practice where the investigator does not hold a licence.