Recently we were asked to represent a man who had been dismissed. Our client had a good case. Normally an employer in that situation will respond to direct negotiations so that a deal can be done and the parties can get on with their lives.

Sometimes an employer will respond by refusing to enter into direct negotiations but agreeing to go to mediation. It is very rare in such cases that a settlement would not be reached at mediation. In this situation the employer put its head in the sand and didn’t respond at all. Presumably the employer thought that the employee would give up and go away. Bad employers like this are rare but there is a way to deal with them.

The employee needs to file a straight forward claim in the Employment Relations Authority. The ERA will serve the employer with the claim. This is usually enough to make even the most difficult employer do the right thing and respond to the claim. Once the employer responds to the claim the ERA will order that the parties attend mediation as the next step, where, usually, the case will be settled. Having to take the claim to the ERA doesn’t cost much more (about $200 for our client), however, the employer risks that the employee’s attitude will harden and that a greater settlement will be required in order to resolve the matter. 

Our message to bad employers is to do the right thing when dealing with employment disputes. Otherwise, remember, that in terms of the employee’s rights, you can run but you can’t hide.

We were asked to attend an employment meeting with our client, the employee. The family owned company indicated that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss a restructure/redundancy that “might” affect our client. 

Our client had had a very good relationship with the owners of the company and they had been like family to each other; however, she had sensed that something had changed a couple of months earlier. It was hard for her to define what had changed as the change was subtle. One result was that she was convinced that the employer was using the possible redundancy as a means to force her out. 

At the meeting we were professional but frank about the employee’s perception that there had been a change in the relationship and that there was suspicion about the redundancy process. The employer responded by asking what our offer was in order to settle the issues between the parties. While there weren’t any real, tangible issues, there was an underlying feeling and the employee was quite clear that she could not continue to work there. About half an hour after the meeting started we had agreement on an exit package. It was agreed that the employer would within two days pay a reasonable sum to the employee, and that the employee would finish work that day. The employer and employee hugged and the only remaining thing to do was paperwork, which we took care of. 


It was satisfying to be able to quickly obtain a good offer for our client, while maintaining the good feelings that the parties had had for each other before the recent blip in their relationship.