Employment Law

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.

We describe some of the practices some advocacy firms are still undertaking and what people should be aware of before signing up to No Win No Fee.

ERA held the employer could not rely on a one-year fixed-term clause because the statutory requirements were not met (no genuine reasons agreed and reasons not recorded). Ending employment without giving the employee a chance to comment was unjustified. Orders: $15,600 gross lost wages and $12,000 compensation (costs reserved).

A New Zealand Police Senior Sergeant deployed to Fiji succeeded in a Personal Grievance (PG) for unjustified disadvantage. ERA found Police acted unfairly by making adverse findings without a proper process, failing to properly deal with her bullying complaint, using those findings in relation to an external role...

ERA held the employee's redundancy dismissal was unjustified: Pamu relied on automation efficiencies but did not clearly justify why the AP Team Leader role was surplus, ran a short consultation, and mishandled redeployment communications. Orders: $18,000 compensation and $8,900.15 net lost wages.

ERA held a night shift recovery support worker was unjustifiably dismissed after video evidence of sleeping was relied on, in circumstances where night staff had a legitimate expectation they could sleep during combined breaks and management had not clearly changed that practice. Reinstatement was declined, but the...

The ERA rejected the employee's constructive dismissal claim but upheld unjustified disadvantage findings because the employer ran a flawed, slow investigation and left the employee in the dark about process and return-to-work steps. Orders included $15,000 compensation, a $3,000 penalty for...

ERA held a fixed-term seasonal worker was unjustifiably dismissed for redundancy because the employer decided to select him for redundancy before meeting him and did not consult. Although the business case to disestablish one fixed-term role was accepted as genuine, the selection process was...