We offer a broad range of employee services, from advising on employment agreements through to assisting with disciplinary meetings and filing personal grievances, wage arrears claims, and all types of employment law litigation. This includes legal action in the Employment Relations Authority, Employment Court and related forums such as the Human Rights Commission and Human Rights Review Tribunal.
If you are having difficulty with an employment agreement that has been given to you, such as your future employer insisting on a restraint of trade type clause or wanting to move you 200km away and make you pay petrol costs, we can assist with friendly, competent advice based on over 30 years of specialist employment law help. We have handled over 20,000 employment law matters in that time.
We can also assist with related legal issues such as independent contractor agreements. This could be the drafting of an independent contractor agreement, or advising you on one you have been given. We offer a competitive hourly rate on such advice.
We can also offer assistance with disciplinary meetings that may (unfortunately) occur during your employment. This can involve representation at these meetings, as it can be emotionally difficult and legally challenging to go to these meetings alone, particularly if there are two or more members of management at the meeting. If you want to leave your employment, we can also assist with attempting to negotiate an exit package.
Other disputes we commonly handle are problems with your employer or former employer failing to pay holiday pay or commissions and in such cases we can file wage arrears actions for you in the Employment Relations Authority (ERA). You technically have six years to file these claims, which is quite long – as the law only allows 90 days to file a personal grievance. If you are slow – you lose!
If you receive a warning as a result of a disciplinary meeting we can assist with attempting to have the warning removed or filing an unjustified disadvantage grievance for you. If you are dismissed, we can assist with filing a personal grievance for unjustified dismissal.
There are also other forms of grievance you can file if you are being sexually harassed or racially discriminated against. We generally do not file many harassment or discrimination claims as generally speaking, we find that employers in New Zealand are very aware of their legal duties and responsibilities, but if this situation unfortunately happens to you, we can of course assist. You have the option of either the Employment Relations Authority or you can file a claim under Human Rights legislation. Some people have recently been drawn to Human Rights claims as they appear to award more money but the process can be more expensive and time consuming.
If you are terminated because you are pregnant or your employer will not let you return after parental leave you may also be able to file a claim. There are also claims that you can bring if your employer is trying to stop you working unfairly pursuant to a restraint of trade clause.
We offer reasonable hourly rates or fixed fee quotes.
If we assist you with these matters we will generally either meet with you or take instructions over the phone, write a personal grievance letter and then attend mediation at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) Mediation Service if your former employer agrees to come to such a mediation. If they do not agree to come we will then file a Statement of Problem in the Employment Relations Authority, which normally will “order” an employer to mediation. If the mediation is not successful, we can represent you at the investigation meeting, which normally takes one day.
We have huge experience in attending Employment Relations Authority and can represent you in any employment law forum anywhere in New Zealand.
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