Posted on: Apr 05, 2016
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is making changes to its Employment Mediation Services to ensure they’re organised and resourced to:
- continue to provide high quality mediations
- be flexible to meet demand and customer needs, and
- be responsibly cost effective
These decisions follow a two-month consultation process on a change proposal put out on 1 December 2015. This process, including the consultation, has confirmed that Employment Mediation Services, and the people who deliver them, are held in very high regard across New Zealand, including in our regional communities.
It has also been made clear that Employment Mediation Services is and will continue to be a critical part of MBIE’s Resolution Services.
What’s changing?
In summary, the final decisions about changes to the Employment Mediation Services are that they will:
- adjust the balance between the employed and contractor mediators and their locations
- retain the mixed model of service delivery as this is critical to enable us to provide the required flexibility and regional reach for our services
- confirm, subject to some minor adjustments, a national case management approach to improve the triaging of cases and the utilisation of employment mediators.
This means that:
- the resourcing model for employment mediations will shift to a mix of:
- permanent MBIE employees providing mediations in Auckland, Manukau, Hamilton, Napier, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin
- panels of contract mediators that will be established in the main centres (Auckland, Manukau, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch) to provide additional capacity during peak times
- the Dunedin Contract Panel will be extended up to one year
- panels of contract mediators that will be established in other locations across New Zealand, both where and (potentially) beyond mediation services are currently provided or may be required in the future
- the number of MBIE-employed Employment Mediators will reduce from 27.5 to 22 positions
- the Tauranga office will not retain an employed mediator, and will instead be serviced by both employed and contracted mediators in surrounding areas
- the number of case coordinators in Hamilton will increase in order to drive a national approach to case management; further resources will be added to Hamilton as fixed term contracts end and through attrition in other centres
- the number of Managers positions will be reduced to 7
For more information on these changes see the MBIE website.
Source: MBIE
Disclaimer
This article, and any information contained on our website is necessarily brief and general in nature, and should not be substituted for professional advice. You should always seek professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters addressed.
