20 Jul 2020

Form over function

Currently, however carefully an employer manages changes to their business, the law operates as a riding crop to punish technical breaches. Form is preferred over function and the intent and context is ignored. 

This results in a transfer of money which is, arguably, better spent on creating sustainable businesses in this country. Businesses that can go on to hire and employ kiwis in the long term. 

This is not a beat up of employees. People are at the heart of it. The pendulum just needs to shift a little to empower the risk takers at the helm of kiwi enterprises to do what they need to do to ensure they are here to stay and not liquidated for the sake of a insignificant misstep. 

The function of a restructure is to correct an imbalance in a business to shift focus, increase margins to be spent on investment and otherwise cement the future of the business. Where that is the goal, the Re:Structure product represents ideal support to achieve it.  

“We jumped on board early on as we saw a lack of sensible advocacy in this setting.” Says Owen Culliney, partner of a firm that supports the Re:Structure product. “It is not for lack of trying that lawyers and advocates see bad outcomes from employment changes. The deck is stacked against the parties.” 

Re:Structure was imagined in a pre-COVID context, but applies now more than ever. Employees need to see that their employers and decision makers have their interests as well as their own in mind. However, employers must have agency over how they operate. The tail cannot wag the dog or cowardice and hesitance will hold up innovation and progress; things that kiwi business are world renowned for and what makes this county great. 

“My firm has traditionally acted for  employers,” Blair Edwards (another support firm partner) noted. “The thing is that not all of them approach this stuff with their eyes wide open, and that leads to bad results. Costly results.” There is a way to follow the process and get a good outcome for all. It’s about education and good advocacy.”