Rosemary Wooders

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Rosemary is an experienced employment lawyer and provides advice to clients across a wide range of industries. Rosemary has worked as an employment lawyer in New Zealand and London.

Rosemary advises employers and senior executives on a wide variety of transactional, contentious and advisory employment matters including personal grievances and disputes, collective bargaining matters, restraints of trade, team move matters, absence management, redundancy and performance issues, and negotiated exits. She also advises on health and safety and privacy matters.

An experienced negotiator, Rosemary represents employers and senior executives at mediation. When matters have not settled, Rosemary has represented clients in the Employment Relations Authority, the Employment Court, and the Coroner's Court.

Rosemary is recognised in leading legal directories, and she has been named a ‘Rising Star’ in labour and employment law in the Legal500 and Doyle’s Guide. Rosemary regularly receives feedback from clients regarding her pragmatic and commercial approach and her responsiveness. Clients have also commented that Rosemary “goes above and beyond to make the law accessible”.

In 2022, Rosemary was appointed to the Employment Law Committee by the Council of the Auckland District Law Society.

Work highlights

Employment status issues
Advising several clients on employment status risk arising from engaging contractors (and disputes arising from same).

Team moves
Advising clients on restraints of trade and team move matters arising from offering employment to employees of a competitor.

Complex employment investigations
Advising employers on a range of complex investigations, including in respect of bullying and harassment, sexual harassment, and fraudulent conduct in the workplace.

Minimum Wage Act and Holidays Act advice
Advising clients on a number of significant Minimum Wage Act and Holidays Act reviews and non-compliance issues across the public and private sectors (including remediation of same).

Corporate transactions
Advising clients on employment aspects arising from corporate transactions, including the transfer of employees. Recent transactions include First Sentier Investment’s acquisition of Waste Management NZ, Toll Group’s sale of Toll Network’s business to Allegro Funds, and Fidelity Life’s acquisition of Westpac Group’s NZ life insurance business.

Privacy Act compliance reviews
Carrying out comprehensive Privacy Act compliance reviews for a range of large employers.

Minimum wage case
Successfully representing Enterprise Motor Group in Employment Court proceedings brought by the Labour Inspectorate relating to the application of the Minimum Wage Act to commission based remuneration (Enterprise Motor Group (New Lynn) Limited v A Labour Inspector).

Lyttelton Port Company industrial disputes
Advising Lyttelton Port Company, which operates one of the country’s major ports, in litigation involving collective bargaining issues with the Maritime Union of New Zealand and the Rail and Maritime Transport Union.

Casual employee issue
Successfully representing a large organisation in the Employment Court against a claim by a former employee that they were a permanent employee (rather than a casual employee).

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Work highlights

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