Employment Law

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.

National has a Small Business Policy and JobStart scheme aim to get rid of No Win No Fee Employment Law in addition to National's other proposed changes. We present our view on this.

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.

The Authority made monetary and/or other orders. Nicholas Fry was first employed by Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) from 24 January 1986 until 17 November 2014. Mr Fry returned to FENZ in March 2022 as an Advisor Community Readiness ... Orders include compensation of $13,000.

Anztec made a senior assembly technician redundant in a small-business restructure. The ERA accepted the redundancy was genuine and the dismissal was substantively justified, but found significant good faith/consultation defects - including failure to proactively disclose information.

A retail assistant was dismissed during a probation period after the employer said CCTV and KPI reports showed targets were not met. The ERA found the employer had not provided adequate POS and legal process training, yet relied on KPI results, and then terminated employment out of the blue by...

A senior journalist/editor with 18 years at Radio Waatea was made redundant after a restructure merging English and Maori newsroom functions. The ERA accepted the restructure had genuine business reasons, but held the redundancy dismissal unjustified because key proposal information was not fairly shared, the employee was not clearly told his role was at risk until the termination day, and redeployment options were not consulted on. Orders: $24,230.77 lost wages (plus interest and KiwiSaver), $19,000 compensation, and a $1,500 Wages Protection Act penalty (half to the employee).