A coffee with Gary Tayler Employment Law specialist

 

Today we are glad to interview Gary Taylor from Gary Tayler Limited - you can find them online at http://www.garytayler.co.nz/

 

Who are Gary Tayler Limited? Where are you based?

Gary Tayler Limited is a family business who specialises in Employment Law and based in Onekawa – Napier.

We service clients from Invercargill right through to Auckland…and that includes Palmerston North which is Palmerston North Personnel’s territory too.

 

What does your business do? What makes it successful?

We are Employment Law and Relationship Specialists. We connect with businesses in an advisory capacity. Our core market is the Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) market – the sort of business that is typically too small to justify employing a Human Resources/Employment Relations Manager  but big enough to be exposed to Employment Relationship risks.

We are successful in our market as we complement business managers by supplying them with specialist Employment Law advice on best and fairest practise in areas like:

• Recruiting
• Employment agreements
• Employment rights and obligations
• Mediation hearings
• Employment Relations Authority hearings
• Employment Court Disputes
• Dispute Prevention and Resolution

 

As Gary is an ex Department of Labour mediator and with more than 20 years of experience we can be the affordable Employment Relations Specialists who are not on the employee payroll. We tailor our costs to suit the business’ needs; considering the complexity of the work required and the volume.

 

What industry sectors do you work with or in? Do you specialise?

We work with all types businesses within the private sector. 

Really, we work on best practise processes and procedures that cross industries and sectors so we are not bound by location or business type.

 

We see you have Covert Surveillance Products and Services on your “product suite” – is this an emerging niche market? I guess privacy laws become an issue with these tools. What advice/recommendations do you give employers in using these tools?

Our son Adrian’s business, “Third Eye Ltd.” focuses on the sale or hire of surveillance products and installation/monitoring services – and naturally there are some synergies there for our clients.

This technology is being used in quite large businesses right through to private homes. There is nothing more powerful than undisputed facts and where an employee is caught on camera committing serious misconduct, a dismissal that might follow, is unlikely to result in any claim for unjustified dismissal. It is a great cost saver for employers.

The surveillance technology is just amazing with Infra-Red, Motion Detection and real time broadcasting of video right through to your cellphone ... even cameras that detect motion behind them and turn around to capture that activity.

Adrian, who has a private investigators license, manages and advises the clients on technology, camera placements and safe guidelines – the general rule of thumb is to place them in “public areas” and not in private spaces like toilets.

 

How does your business work with clients and over what timeframes? How do you work with Manawatu businesses?

Technology is really our friend in today’s world – Gary Tayler Limited work predominantly by phone and email to service clients nationally. With mobile phones and laptops we can run a truly seamless service from the office, home and at short notice. While we prefer to meet our clients it is not always essential as we can send and receive correspondence by email and if absolutely crucial we can courier physical documents.

Our core speciality is dispute prevention and resolution - avoiding Court unless the parties’ understandings of legislation / guidelines are very different.

We only appear in the ERA or the Court 2 or 3 times in a year – I think that shows our approach to prevention of disputes really works.

We also engage with clients a number of ways:

• Some engage us on an hourly rate for occasional intermittent queries
• Large numbers engage on a case by case basis
• Some of our clients have an annual contract with an annual review to have the ability to plan expenses, budget effectively and manage their Employment Law risk effectively without the worry of receiving a bill each time they engage us.

 

Palmerston North Personnel work with great Manawatu employers who assist their employees with Outplacement Services to make effective transition through redundancies and restructures.

What services or support does Gary Tayler Limited provide employers in these areas?

We work with our clients to guide them through a fair redundancy process and that often means we suggest using agencies for outplacement services.

It is good practise to preserve the dignity of affected employees and get respect from them – because it’s important that they be part of the discussion process.

 

The Manawatu market has lot of Small to Medium Enterprises (SME’s) and often they don’t have an HR or Employment Law Specialist in their team. To meet recent legal requirements, Palmerston North Personnel ensure our clients provide an agreement for sign-off prior to employees commencing.

What comments or observations do you have in this area?

That is exactly what you should do and it’s good to hear you are driving your clients to this.

Sections 63A, 64 & 65 of the Employment Relations Act requires:

All terms of employment must be in writing and signed

• Contracts are to be made available for labour inspectors upon demand whether signed or not.
• Employment agreements must signed by employees and employers
• 90 day trial are invalid unless the agreements are provided to the employee, who has then been given at least 3 days (sometimes more) to consider the offer and they have signed, before the employee commences employment.
• Employees have the right to seek advice before signing and must be given a reasonable opportunity to raise any issue about the terms on offer.
• Labour inspectors can seek penalties from employers who don’t have written agreements and don’t provide them upon request.
• Employees can choose which parts of the agreement they agree with and those they don’t agree to if the agreement hasn’t been signed

 

The simple guideline is follow Palmerston North Personnel recommendations to get clients to have their agreements signed and keep them on file.

 

When should an individual or employer talk to Gary Tayler Limited?

There is a saying that seems to fit the bill here

“If what you are doing feels right it probably is, if what you are doing doesn’t fell right, it probably isn’t and if you are not sure then ring Gary Tayler Limited first”

 

If employers or employees engage an Employment Law Specialist – what recommendations would you have for them? What should they look for?

Look to work with a practitioner who has dispute resolution skills and experience. Especially look for early intervention skills and a sound knowledge of employment law.

Many of our clients are referred by other clients – which helps. We encourage the clients to meet us or talk to us to get a feeling of how we engage with them and if they feel we can work together successfully.

 

Do all employment disputes end up in employment court – what alternatives are there if any?

No, the way we approach situations is to resolve disputes and/or mediate and to not end up in the Employment Court.

Some little known statistics:

• 90% +/- of the 1000’s of disputes are mediated and resolved
• 10% +/- are largely dealt with by the Employment Resolution Authority  (ERA)
• Approximately 50 cases per annum make it to Employment Court
• There is also a number of disputes that are resolved without any third party intervention

 

 I think this shows the intention of the legislation is for the parties to resolve and mediate disputes rather than have the Employment Court rule on them, is working.

 

In Summary:

It was an interesting "virtual meeting" with Gary Tayler, very good to hear Palmerston North Personnel are using sound practise in getting our clients (YOU) to sign employment agreements before new employees start. And secondly, Gary Tayler's emphasis on mediation and resolution, rather than heading towards an adversarial "employment war". 

It was also pleasing to interview an Employment Law Specialist who clarified the intention of New Zealand legislation is encourage peaceful resolution between employers and employees and that the legal framework appears to work well.