Employment Institutions Notes

Labour Law Lecture 21st April 2011: Employment Institutions: Examinable: First two slides: Different institutions are available when dealing with employment disputes. 1. Mediation Services: * Six bases around NZ * Settle about 85% of cases that they get. Very small percentage actually go forward to a hearing. * Free * Many cases are settled by lawyers before they get this far 2. Employment Relations Authority/Employment Relations Court * First thing they ask if have you gone thruogh mediation? Discretion to refer you to mediation. * ERA: First specialist institution to hear employment disputes. * $70 filing fee and $150 hearing fee; first day free and costs after that. * Award in successful grievances will be between $3000 and $8000 3. Employment Court * Has its own jurisdiction * Employment court has some matters that it deals with at first instance but most of its work is dealing with challenges to ERA's determingation. If not happy with ERA can challenge it in Employment Court. * First real judicial authority; EC judges have status of DC judges. * Employment Authority has 'members', EC has judges. Also possibility of a 'full court', three of the judges sitting together. They sit as a full court if there is an important legal issue to try, or if they are being asked to overrule a previous decision. They have been sitting as a full court of three over the last few years because they don't seem to have very much work. 4. Court of Appeal * Now we're getting into the general jurisdiction courts. Here, the costs begin to rachet up quite quickly. $920 filing fee, $1124 per half day. CA doesn't usually last longer than half a day or maybe a day at the most. Once you get to CA and SC, you have to pay "setting down" to get a fixture, that's $2249. It will cost over $4000 to run a CA case just in the filing and hearing fees alone. Serves a bit of a winnowing function, because you're not going to go to the CA unless you have a really important case. * Sits normally as three judges, has a full court of five judges. Five judge court of appeal if for particularly significant matters, or where the CA is asked to overrule or revisit a previous judgement. 5. Supreme Court * Since 2003 the SC has become part of the employment law hierarchy. There have only been a couple of cases that go to SC. * Just about all of the CA cases that went to SC have been turned over by the SC. Seems like the CA is pretty weak. Bryson is one case that we've read where the CA decision was turned over. * SC costs are $920 filing fee, hearing costs $409 for each half day. With SC you're unlikely to have long hearings anyway, because by the time the case gets to the SC as it proceeds the issues become more and more refined and isolated, and things are well argued so points can be dealt with relatively quickly and cleanly. Setting down is $818. * Basically only have a month to decide whether to appeal or not. Most of the appellants will wait until the last minute.

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