Case Studies

Navigating Complex Employment Issues with Strategic Legal Insight

Making a role change

Changing Employee Roles

It’s always better to have economic certainty against litigation uncertainty

The opportunity

A company had an employee away on extended leave, during which time due to Covid and other circumstances the company needed to adjust their business model. It became apparent that the position the employee held was significantly different to the one they needed to conduct their business in the future. 

They required a more elevated role, a higher skill level and ultimately more of a leadership role.

The client approached MGZ Employment Law as they were unsure how to proceed or if they could restructure by replacing the current administrative role with a more high-level senior role.

MGZ'S Action

We first assisted the client with a 3rd party critical review to determine the validity of the possible restructure, this gave confidence to the Client and MGZ that the restructure was valid also giving a legal footing for the restructure to be proposed.

Following a review of the roles and challenging the company’s viewpoint we established that there was indeed a substantive difference between the two roles. 

We advised that the client needed to be engaged in a fair and legal process of delivering a proposal with ample opportunity for all parties that were affected to consider and deliver any and all feedback before a final decision was to be made.

MGZ provided the client with step-by-step advice and scripts to maintain a solid legal footing through a potentially tense process.

Our goal was to get our client to the end of the process with an outcome that had them in a position to defend a claim, but at the same time having a process that was fair for all parties and had the highest chances of a mutual result.

The result

We assisted our client to the end of the process with an outcome that had them in a position to defend a claim if they so needed, but at the same time having a process that was fair for all parties and had the highest chances of a mutual result.

The employee was unhappy about losing their job, however was satisfied with how the situation was managed, therefore unlikely to make a claim.

Ultimately it's better to have economic certainty against litigation uncertainty.