Napier, MSCNewsWire, 25 May 2016 - Employee disputes are the happy hunting ground of lawyers working on contingency (commission) remuneration. Contrary to a widespread impression, this is OK in New Zealand. Dispute-chasing lawyers can paralyse entire factories. Their staple is aggrieved members of the workforce who, experience demonstrates, are prone to actively seeking out actionable incidents, and who are aware also of the companies that are most vulnerable to early settlement.Such members of the workforce are increasingly hard to identify because their previous employers court renewed legal action themselves if they deliver a forthright opinion on a problem employee.

Below is a checklist of steps that will help employers get to the truth that is nowadays so often hidden behind a thicket of bland testimonials.

  1.   Approach: The applicant is asked to confirm the standard responses that they have submitted. These are the usual details such as birth date, nationality, educational   qualifications, and experience and subsequent qualifications such as diplomas..  2.  Seemingly as an afterthought, or as required, if not absolutely necessary, process of company administration, the following questions will be asked, and/or confirmed, ideally face-to-face :-  3.  Have you at any time in your career been involved in any dispute that involved a government-sponsored tribunal or any other arbitrating organisation, especially a union one?  4.  Have you at any time been involved in a dispute or negotiation on an individual basis in which a lawyer was involved?. Note: whenever referring to a lawyer, you should also add, “or any other outside workplace adviser or consultant.”  5   Have you at any time been involved in a dispute or negotiation on a collective basis in which a lawyer (adviser etc) was involved?  6.  If the answer is yes to either of these last three then require the applicant to identify the employing organisation, the approximate time of the episode.

Also obtain a broad description of the outcome of the dispute, whatever its nature, and whatever its cause. This will give you an insight into the attitude of the applicant.

Validation: The person responsible for this hiring procedure and equipped with the original testimonials from previous employers supplied in the original application and possessing the answers to all of the above now proceeds to:

Go the referees, the ones who wrote the testimonials, and ideally do so in person in order to receive a genuine opinion. These questions should be asked:-  *  Would you employ or engage this person again?  *  Would you work with this person again?

If you are still in any doubt, then you ask this supplementary question of the referees:

Can you refer me to anyone else who might be able to give us an insight into the suitability of this individual for the post we have advertised?

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