Terminating Employment: The Difficult Legal Issues
Terminating an employee is tough, especially as the employment landscape is highly complex, which means it can often be a fine line between lawful and unlawful dismissal. Employers and their Counsel must be across of a wide range of employee rights, particularly as well as a significant number of compliance obligations. Expand your repertoire with these crucial sessions which focus on restructuring and redundancies, medical incapacity, social media, difficult staff and constructive dismissal. WEB232NZA02Z
Description
Attend and earn 4 CPD hours
Chair: Simon Martin, Partner, Quigg Partners
9.00am to 9.05am Opening Comments by the Chair
9.05am to 9.50am Termination, Social Media and Employment Law: The Challenges
- When does “private” become public?
- TikTok and employee dismissals
- Risks with messaging apps: Slack / MS Teams / Whatsapp etc
- Best practice process and policies
Presented by Mary Breckon, Senior Associate, Simpson Grierson
9.50am to 10.35am Restructuring and Redundancies
- Provision of information obligations
- Selection process issues: who is in and who is out
- What causes delays
Presented by Julia MacGibbon, Senior Associate, DLA Piper
10.35am to 10.50am Morning Tea
10.50am to 11.35am Medical Incapacity and the Workplace
- What process must employers follow when dealing with long term employee absences for sickness
- In what circumstances can employees be terminated for medical incapacity?
- Recent medical incapacity case law and examples
- Impact of the proposed NZ income insurance scheme on medical issues in the workplace
Presented by Jeremy Ansell, Senior Associate, Duncan Cotterill
11.35am to 12.20pm Dismissing Difficult Staff and Defending Claims
- Can you dismiss a staff member just for being difficult?
- How do you deal with conflict between employees?
- Are there other options when there are no performance or disciplinary issues?
- How to position yourself to reduce the risk of a successful PG?
Presented by John Farrow, Partner, Anderson Lloyd
12.20pm to 1.05pm Constructive Dismissal
- The test
- Recent developments and cooling off
- Interesting cases
- A change needed?
Presented by Nick Logan, Senior Associate, Quigg Partners
1.05pm to 1.15pm Closing Comments and Q and A
Learning Objectives:
- Receive practical guidance on dismissing staff and defending claims
- Evaluate constructive dismissal with expert case analysis
- Gain practical tips on approaching a termination due to medical incapacity or injury
- Understand the process and issues arising from restructures and redundancy
Presenters
Simon Martin
Simon is a Partner and head of the Employment team at Quigg Partners in Wellington. He was admitted to the Bar in 2008 and has over 10 years’ experience in all aspects of employment law. He advises a wide array of clients, from small businesses to multinational entities and public sector organisations. He regularly represents clients at mediation, and has appeared in the Employment Relations Authority, Employment Court, and both the District and High Courts.
Simon has a particular interest and expertise in complex restructurings, the employment-related aspects of sales and purchases of businesses and solving contentious employment disputes. Simon assists clients with their Health and Safety obligations by providing advice on compliance, and has also acted for clients defending WorkSafe prosecutions resulting from workplace injuries or incidents.
Simon manages a team that also specialises in various non-contentious matters, including drafting employment agreements and policies, privacy and official information advice and advising on “whistle-blower” complaints. He is a sought-after presenter in various employment law seminars and workshops, and frequently provides in-house training for clients.
Mary Breckon
Mary is a senior associate in the employment law group. She is experienced in all aspects of employment law and health and safety. Her expertise includes advising on all matters concerning employment including, human rights and privacy, disciplinary matters, employment investigations, restructures and performance management.
Mary also provides advice on workplace obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, officer duties, WorkSafe investigations, and notifiable events.
Mary regularly attends mediations and has appeared in the District Court, High Court, Employment Relations Authority, and Employment Court.
Mary provides timely, commercial and pragmatic advice on employment law issues to clients in a range of sectors, including health, education, banking and finance, building, engineering and manufacturing, retail, and forestry.
Julia MacGibbon
Julia has acted on a range of matters, including personal grievances, health and safety, Holidays Act audits, restructuring, redundancies and immigration. Julia has appeared in the Employment Relations Authority, District Court and High Court.
Jeremy Ansell
Jeremy have practised as a specialist employment lawyer since 2012, including at firms in Auckland and Wellington. He also worked in an in-house legal role at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London specialising in professional conduct and regulatory matters.
Jeremy have extensive experience in many aspects of employment law, including the resolution of personal grievances, dealing with tricky staff behaviour and performance issues, restructuring processes and compliance matters. He also have experience assisting clients with investigations and professional discipline (e.g. Law Society and Education Council) matters.
Jeremy regularly represent clients at mediation and in Employment Relations Authority and Employment Court matters, including compliance orders, personal grievances and restraint of trade matters.
John Farrow
John Farrow is a Partner co-leading Anderson Lloyd's national employment team. He specialises in Employment and Health & Safety law. John's expertise covers the full range of employment matters, including those which involve criminal and civil aspects. John has represented employees, senior executives, small to medium businesses, councils, local authorities, and corporates. He is a LEADR-accredited Mediator, Member of the Institute of Directors and is an 'Association of Workplace Investigators' Certificate-holder. John is named in the 'Best Lawyers in New Zealand' publication, Labour and Employment Law category, and as a 'next generation partner' in the Legal 500.
Nick Logan
Nick is a Senior Solicitor at Quigg Partners. He has been practicing employment law since 2011 and has considerable experience in both contentious and non-contentious areas. Nick recently returned from the United Kingdom where he worked in a multinational employment law team and assisted clients both in the UK and internationally. Nick advises a wide array of clients from small businesses to multinational entities and public sector organisations. He has a particular interest in the employment law aspects of the sale and purchase of businesses, terminations and the start up/tech sector. In health and safety matters, Nick has assisted with policy advice as well as providing fatality response and defending WorkSafe prosecutions. Nick has represented employers in mediations, the Employment Relations Authority and the Employment Court. He has also appeared in the High Court and District Court.