Saturday’s Herald had a feature on the biggest shake-up of employment laws in 20 years and gave an example of a Fijian carpenter, Basa Jal, who apparently owes his job and his New Zealand residence to the current 90-day trial period law.
To the rescue came Sean Robertson-Welsh, who owns New Zealand’s biggest fencing supplies company, Effective Fencing in Penrose, who agreed to give Mr Jal a job under the 90-day trial law, and support his application for a work permit. Mr Robertson-Welsh said he wouldn’t have taken on Mr Jal without the 90 day trial period.
So far, good story for those who claim the 90 day trial period is providing jobs for those on the “margins”.
But then, this.
Mr Robertson-Welsh, an English immigrant who bought the company in 2008 after running a similar business in Britain for 15 years, is a bitter opponent of the current employment laws allowing sacked workers to seek compensation for unjustified dismissal.
“It’s so bloody archaic here. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “I’ve been in the Employment Court seven times in three years. In Britain I was in business 25 years and never went to the Employment Court once, which shows you the culture.”
What? Is he serious? In the Employment Court seven times in three years! That’s got to be a record for any employer, let alone one that employs less than 20 people. It’s hard work for a worker to get a case to the Employment Court and this suggests to me that this employer has some real problems in his employment practices.
I also wonder whether he thought some of the other laws in the UK were “archaic”, such as working time regulation, meals and rest breaks, and minimum redundancy entitlements – which New Zealand either doesn’t have or is in the process of wrecking.
But hardly a poster boy for good employers.
The herald or you are wrong, this is not the biggest shake up in employment laws in 20 years. It’s only 10 years since the ERA was introduced.
Oh now I see, the unions claim it is the biggest shake up in 20 years. Totally wrong. The ECA of National was abolished in 2000 and by comparison a few amendments to that Act are quite a lot less substantial, so 10 years is probably what they meant to say.
I have personal experience of Mr Sean Robertson-Welsh and he is the most arrogant ruthless and egotistical being I have ever had the misfortune to come across. Being one of the previous owners and directors of Effective Fencing Ltd, a business that my then partner and I started from scratch and operated for 20 years, I could only look on in absolute dismay and horror as he literally “got rid of” most of the existing staff, (some of whom had been with the company 15 years, and were extremely loyal and hardworking people).
He “got rid” of these people in a day, and as hard as it was for them to all of a sudden be unemployed, I believe most were happy enough to leave, as life under Sean Robertson-Welsh’s reign was bloody unbearable. I hope they have all moved on, are happily employed and once again have a pleasant life which they all truly deserve.
I worked for Effective Fencing for around 4 months (Dec 2010 – April 2011) and found it to be the worst work environment I have ever come across. Sean has no value of the staff, and I can totally understand why he appears in court so much as he laid me off with just 4 hours notice, using my holiday pay to cover the duration of my 2 weeks notice period. Due to the high cost of taking him to court, I had to drop the case – however I do wish to warn anyone who wishes to work for him, or deal with him they are making a big mistake.