Restructuring is your right as an employer. How you do it determines whether it’s lawful.

Sometimes business realities require change: roles need to be disestablished, teams need to be restructured, costs need to be reduced. New Zealand law allows employers to make these changes, but the process matters as much as the reason.

A genuine restructure requires:

·       A real business reason (financial, operational, strategic)

·       A properly documented proposal

·       Genuine consultation with affected employees

·       Consideration of feedback before decisions are made

·       Exploration of redeployment options

·       Fair selection criteria if multiple roles are affected

The Employment Relations Authority will not second-guess your commercial decisions, but it will scrutinise your process. Predetermining outcomes, rushing consultation, or failing to consider redeployment can turn a legitimate restructure into an unjustified dismissal.

What we do:

·       Restructure planning and strategy

·       Drafting proposal documents and business cases

·       Managing consultation meetings

·       Advising on selection criteria and processes

·       Supporting redeployment discussions

·       Finalising redundancy arrangements