employment-process
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NZ employment law and HR process playbook for Formia Group (Brightwater Joinery + Sellers Room Joinery). Combines official Employment NZ guidance with Dyhrberg Drayton's standing advice. Covers minimum rights, hiring, agreements, pay, hours, leave, fair process, good faith, misconduct, disciplinary action, performance management, restructuring, dismissal, and HR documentation. Trigger whenever Rohan, Mark, or Ben raise an issue involving an employee's role/performance/contract/conduct OR when a manager asks 'how do I deal with X' about staff, HR, leave, warnings, discipline, restructuring, dismissal, or employment law.
SKILL.md — full markdown including frontmatter
--- name: employment-process description: "NZ employment law and HR process playbook for Formia Group (Brightwater Joinery + Sellers Room Joinery). Combines official Employment NZ guidance with Dyhrberg Drayton's standing advice. Covers minimum rights, hiring, agreements, pay, hours, leave, fair process, good faith, misconduct, disciplinary action, performance management, restructuring, dismissal, and HR documentation. Trigger whenever Rohan, Mark, or Ben raise an issue involving an employee's role/performance/contract/conduct OR when a manager asks 'how do I deal with X' about staff, HR, leave, warnings, discipline, restructuring, dismissal, or employment law." --- # Employment Process Playbook (Formia Group) Standing reference for handling employment situations at Brightwater Joinery and Sellers Room Joinery. Based on: - official Employment New Zealand guidance from `employment.govt.nz`, ingested as `employment-nz:*` reference memories; and - Dyhrberg Drayton's written advice and templates, filed at `business/hr/corporate/employment-templates/`. **Hard rule:** never present HR output as legal advice. Larry's job is to (a) identify the right pathway, (b) retrieve and cite the relevant official Employment NZ guidance, (c) point at the right Formia/DDE template, and (d) recommend DDE review before formal steps. Don't draft PIP plans, warning letters, restructure proposals, dismissal letters, or settlement material without the human partner's explicit go-ahead AND, in most cases, DDE involvement. For named staff processes that need tracking, documentation, next-step options, or filing, also read `hr-process-pathways`. That skill defines the project tracker format, pathway stages, documentation checklists, and Drive filing convention Larry must use to know where each staff member is in their HR process. --- ## Official Employment NZ knowledge base Larry has page-level reference memories from the public Employment NZ website. They are named: `employment-nz:<page-path-slug>` When a manager asks an HR/employment question: 1. Use `memory.search` with a query like `employment nz disciplinary process fair process support person` or `employment nz sick leave medical certificate` to retrieve official source pages. 2. Prefer current official Employment NZ guidance for legal minimums and public process expectations. 3. Use this skill to convert the guidance into a safe Formia workflow. 4. Name uncertainty and recommend DDE review for anything high-risk. The ingested Employment NZ topic areas cover: - Starting employment: minimum rights, good faith, fair process, good reason, record-keeping, employee vs contractor, fixed-term/casual/permanent, hiring, tests/checks, trial periods, probationary periods, employment agreements. - Pay and hours: minimum wage, wage records, pay periods, deductions, payslips, final pay, hours, breaks, overtime, rostering, holiday and leave pay. - Leave and holidays: public holidays, annual holidays, sick leave, bereavement leave, parental leave, family violence leave, jury service, leave without pay, alternative holidays, closedowns. - Fair work practices: workplace policies, privacy, alcohol/drugs, equipment/vehicles/clothing, performance issues, restructuring/workplace change, unions, collective bargaining, ethical work, flexible work, pay equity. - Resolving problems: misconduct, bullying, harassment, discrimination, illness/injury, work relationship problems, early resolution, mediation, personal grievances, disciplinary action, records of settlement, Labour Inspectorate complaints. - Ending employment: resignation, retirement, notice, redundancy, dismissal, constructive dismissal, health issues, abandonment, final pay and last-day obligations. ### Official baseline principles to keep front-of-mind - Employment agreements and policies cannot remove minimum employment rights. - Employers and employees must deal with each other in good faith: be active and constructive, responsive and communicative, and not misleading or deceptive. - Before a decision that may negatively affect an employee, provide relevant information and a real opportunity to comment. - Any warning, disciplinary action, dismissal, redundancy, or major workplace change needs both a good reason and a fair process. - Keep written records: facts relied on, invitations, employee responses, support-person offers, meeting notes, decisions, and outcome letters. - If the issue could become a personal grievance, union/legal involvement, discrimination, harassment, safety misconduct, serious misconduct, redundancy, or dismissal, pause and escalate. --- ## Lawyer of record **Dyhrberg Drayton Employment Law** (DDE) - Partner: **Johanna Drayton** — johanna@ddelaw.co.nz · +64 4 550 4062 · 027 255 5716 - Office: Level 6, Perpetual Guardian House, 99 Customhouse Quay, PO Box 25-301, Wellington 6146 - General: enquiry@ddelaw.co.nz · ddelaw.co.nz DDE is the firm to brief on any non-trivial employment matter — performance issues, role changes, structural change, exit conversations. They've already advised on Mr Knott's matter (BWJ Factory Manager, Feb 2025) and provided the restructure template Formia uses. --- ## Core principles (absorb these before anything else) 1. **You cannot unilaterally change an employee's role.** The employee's individual employment agreement (IEA) sets out their role. Substantive variation needs **either their signed agreement** OR a defensible structural process. Asking them informally and them saying "no" muddies the waters and creates legal risk. 2. **Restructure is for genuine structural change, not as a tool to remove a specific person.** You can only restructure if the role itself is no longer needed (or the role has materially changed). If you still need someone doing the work, restructuring won't fly — it looks targeted and exposes Formia to a personal grievance. From DDE's Knott letter: *"Restructuring is not an option as you will still need the factory manager role in the company."* 3. **The 90-day trial period is gone the moment it expires.** After 90 days, terminating without process exposes Formia to a personal grievance. There's no shortcut back to it. 4. **Be patient — formal processes are weeks, not days.** PIP from informal coaching to dismissal-on-notice is **3+ months**. Restructure consultation is at least a calendar week of feedback time, plus consideration time, plus notice (usually 4 weeks). Anyone wanting "fast" wants something risky. --- ## Pathway selector When a manager raises an employment issue, identify which pathway fits: | Situation | Pathway | |---|---| | Employee under-performing in their existing role | **PIP** (start informal coaching) | | You want to move employee to a different role | **Variation by agreement**, OR if not agreed → PIP first, then **without-prejudice** conversation | | Role itself is genuinely no longer needed (e.g. acquisition consolidates roles, automation removes function) | **Restructure** | | Employee misconduct (theft, safety violation, harassment) | **Disciplinary process** — escalate to DDE same day | | Communication breakdown, want clean exit | **Without-prejudice mediation** | | Still in 90-day trial | Trial-period termination (still get DDE to review) | --- ## Pathway: Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) DDE's recommended pathway for under-performance. From the Knott letter: ### Stage 1 — Informal coaching (~1 month) - Regular one-on-ones with the employee. - Specific feedback on the function(s) they're not meeting. - Document each conversation contemporaneously (date, what was discussed, what was agreed) — these become evidence if it escalates. - **Goal:** give them a real chance to improve before anything formal. ### Stage 2 — Formal PIP (~6-12 weeks, more commonly ~3 months) - Triggered if informal coaching doesn't shift the dial. - Written PIP document listing the position-description functions not being met, with examples and clear required standards. - **At least 3 formal review meetings** through the PIP — schedule them at the start. - DDE will draft the PIP document — don't write your own. ### Stage 3 — Graduated warnings → dismissal-on-notice - If the PIP review shows continued non-performance: first warning → final warning → dismissal on notice (with sufficient evidence of non-performance through the PIP). - DDE will provide warning letter materials. ### When NOT to skip stages Skipping informal coaching and going straight to formal PIP is a real risk. The Employment Court reads "process" carefully and a missing coaching stage gives the employee a strong personal grievance argument. From DDE: *"A formal PIP takes at least 6-8 weeks and more commonly about 3 months or so."* --- ## Pathway: Restructure Only valid if the role itself is genuinely no longer needed. The DDE template is at `business/hr/corporate/employment-templates/Restructure Proposal — TEMPLATE (Dyhrberg Drayton).docx`. ### Required sections (per the template) 1. **Background and current situation** — context for the change 2. **Reason for change** — business rationale; **critical** if the restructure impacts only one employee, because it must defensibly explain why this is structural and not targeted 3. **Proposed changes** — disestablish role X, establish role Y; clear differences in responsibilities/skills/qualifications between old and new 4. **Process for change** — no decision yet; employee has a calendar week (DDE's suggested minimum) to provide feedback; the company considers and decides 5. **Timeline** — proposal date → feedback due date → decision date → notice given (if proceeding) 6. **Redeployment** — Formia must consider redeployment. If there's a new role created, you must explain why the impacted employee is/isn't an automatic redeployment candidate (different skills, different responsibilities, etc.) 7. **Redundancy** — 4 weeks' notice per the standard IEA. **No redundancy compensation payable** under the standard Formia agreement (verify in the specific employee's contract before quoting). 8. **Time off for job search** — the impacted employee gets reasonable paid time off during the notice period to look for alternative work. 9. **Current structure** — org chart of how things are now 10. **Proposed structure** — org chart of how things would be after ### Risk: "single-employee restructure" appearance If the restructure only impacts one named employee, it MUST be paired with a tight business rationale — otherwise it reads as a targeted exit dressed up as restructure, which the Employment Court treats as a personal grievance. ### Worked example The Mark Bidlake → Head of Operations role at SRJ was created via this template — disestablishing a prior position and creating a Head-of-Operations role spanning BWJ + the newly acquired SRJ. The "newly acquired company" placeholder language in the template is from that consultation. --- ## Pathway: Without-prejudice conversation / mediation A confidential, off-the-record conversation about exit terms. From DDE's Knott letter: - Best deployed **after** a period of informal coaching has documented the issues — premature without-prejudice approaches "muddy the waters". - Requires a "carefully crafted letter" inviting the employee to the conversation, making clear that whether they attend or not, no inference will be drawn AND it won't affect a formal PIP if one's needed next. - Outcome: usually a mutually-agreed exit on terms (could include a severance payment, a reference, an agreed end-date). - DDE will draft the invitation letter and represent in the meeting if asked. --- ## Pathway: 90-day trial period Only useful if invoked **within** the first 90 days of employment AND the IEA contains a valid 90-day clause AND the employee was not previously employed by Formia. After 90 days, this option is closed. From the Knott letter: *"the 90-day trial period has passed so you cannot use that to say terminate his employment without him being able to raise a personal grievance."* **Action for Larry:** if anyone says "we'll just use the 90-day trial," confirm: - Days since the employee's start date - That the IEA actually contains a 90-day clause (some don't) - That the employee wasn't previously employed by Formia in any capacity --- ## Trial Period vs Probationary Period — DO NOT confuse these This bit was learned the hard way on 16 May 2026 when Cornelia Zlamala (BWJ → SRJ intra-group transfer) caught a "Trial Period" clause in her new SRJ contract that should have been a **Probationary Period** instead. She's correct — it matters legally: | Term | Legal basis | When valid | |---|---|---| | **Trial Period** | s67A NZ Employment Relations Act | **Only** for genuinely new employees in their first 90 days with that employer, AND the IEA must contain the clause, AND no prior employment relationship of any kind | | **Probationary Period** | s67 NZ Employment Relations Act | For continuing employees taking on a new role, intra-group transfers, role changes — anywhere there's an established employment relationship but the parties want a defined evaluation window | **The implication for Formia:** any time someone moves **within the group** (BWJ ↔ SRJ, or company → different role), their new agreement should use "**Probationary Period**", NOT "Trial Period". Using the wrong term doesn't just look unprofessional — it's not legally valid for an intra-group case and opens Formia to a personal grievance if the employee is dismissed under it. ### Probationary period mechanics (typical) - 90 days is the conventional window (matches the trial-period intuition without the s67A restriction) - Notice during probation: shorter (2 weeks is common) - Notice post-probation: standard (4 weeks per the IEA) - During probation, employer is still subject to ordinary good-faith / fair-process obligations — i.e. dismissal needs cause, can't be arbitrary. (Trial-period clause s67A is the only mechanism that allows no-fault dismissal, and it's narrowly scoped.) ### Action for Larry / Rohan - If a manager is preparing a contract for an intra-group transfer or role change, default to **"Probationary Period"** language, not "Trial Period". DDE has matching template clauses. - If you see a new-hire IEA template that's been adapted for an intra-group case, the Trial Period clause needs to come out and be replaced with the Probationary clause — flag to DDE. - Worked example: Cornelia's new SRJ contract (drafted May 2026) initially had "Trial Period" — she flagged it and the revision uses "Probationary Period" with 2 weeks' notice during + 4 weeks' after. If any of those don't hold, escalate to DDE before doing anything. --- ## Filing conventions - **Generic templates** (re-usable across the group): `business/hr/corporate/employment-templates/` - **Real legal advice on specific matters**: `business/hr/<company>/current-staff/<firstname-lastname>/employment-matters/` — mark the file `CONFIDENTIAL` in the filename. - **Worked examples kept for training** (names not redacted, treat as confidential): `business/hr/corporate/employment-templates/` with `EXAMPLE` in the filename so it's distinguished from blank templates. - **Drafts in flight** (PIP plans being prepared, restructure proposals being consulted on): `business/hr/<company>/current-staff/<firstname-lastname>/in-progress/` and **delete** when superseded by signed final. --- ## When Larry should escalate (not act) This skill is reference material. Larry must escalate to Rohan / a manager / DDE in any of these cases: 1. Manager asks Larry to **draft** a PIP, warning letter, restructure proposal, or termination letter — Larry's role is to flag the right pathway and template, not write the document. 2. Manager describes conduct that might be **misconduct** (safety, theft, harassment, dishonesty) — escalate to DDE same day. 3. Employee mentions they're considering raising a **personal grievance**, contacting their union, or seeking legal advice — stop, save the conversation, alert Rohan immediately. 4. Anyone wants to "skip the process" or "move fast" on an employment matter — push back; the timeline is not negotiable without legal exposure. 5. Restructure proposal involves **a single named employee** — DDE review of the business rationale is mandatory before consultation begins.
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