Industry news, practical commentary, and real-world employment law lessons from the coalface in New Zealand. Short updates, longer opinion pieces, and anonymised stories that highlight what goes wrong (and how to avoid it).
Updates, commentary, and practical lessons from the coalface. This is where I publish industry news, my opinion on employment law issues, and real-world stories (some anonymised, some not) that show how disputes start, how they escalate, and how they can be resolved.
Some articles in this section are short and timely. Others are longer opinion pieces or breakdowns of common failure points I see in practice. If you are looking for structured guides and explainer articles, browse the main articles and topics as well.
Employment disputes are rarely about one single event. They usually build from poor process, poor communication, missing documentation, or decisions that get locked in too early. I use this section to call out patterns I see repeatedly, and to explain the practical reality of what happens in MBIE mediation, the Employment Relations Authority (ERA), and sometimes the Employment Court.
If you are in a live dispute, treat deadlines and evidence seriously from day one. For employees, that may include the time limits for raising a Personal Grievance (PG). For employers, that means avoiding rushed responses and preserving the record before memories fade or systems overwrite.
Ahead of the 2026 election, Labour and Opportunity were asked to state their positions on the recent Employment Relations Act changes, including contribution, remedies and employee access to justice.
Mere Broughton was dismissed by The Whanau Ora Community Clinic after 106 days of employment under an agreement containing a probation provision. The case concerned whether the employer could treat probation as permitting dismissal without the ordinary justification and fair-process requirements.
Top Produce and Bhatia raise a Full Court question about whether New Zealand's Wages Protection Act can reach an employment premium paid outside New Zealand before or in connection with employment here.
![Menzies v Corrigan [2026] NZEmpC 151 - late challenge refused, substantive issues remain unresolved](/Blog/articles/Employment_Law_News_Opinion/menzies-v-corrigan-2026-court-151/4eddf0_9083d25fdcfa42f192e1d1c26ebdb0a8~mv2.jpg)
Mr Menzies sought to challenge an ERA compliance outcome arising from remedies originally ordered against a company that later entered liquidation. The background raised disputed accounting, disclosure, separate-legal-personality and recovery issues, but the challenge itself was filed substantially out of time.
A record-based response to commentary about Joyce v Ultimate Siteworks, Menzies v Corrigan and employment advocates, separating what the judgments actually decided from disputed characterisations and matters that remain unresolved.
This article examines how disputed accounting material in Menzies v Corrigan moved from a liquidator's reference to 'excessive drawings' into evidence used in proceedings seeking personal compliance orders against a company director. It also traces later disclosure issues involving material routed through Catherine Stewart Barrister's office.
A critique of the Employers and Manufacturers Association case for new regulation of employment advocates, focusing on whether the publicly identified evidence demonstrates widespread advocate-specific consumer harm.
Employment Court procedural failures are sometimes attributed to non-lawyer advocates, but this article examines reported examples showing that competence and compliance problems can also arise with lawyers and represented parties.
