The changes are aimed at improving support and consistency in standards and workflow
The Employment Court | Te Kōti Take Mahi o Aotearoa has implemented changes to case processing and management services.
Effective 2 April, a national registry based in Auckland began overseeing these services. The initiative stemmed from recommendations made during the 2019 review of the court's operating model.
The recommendations included:
- enhancing consistency and support across case and hearing management practices and standards
- increasing national visibility and awareness of the court's work, including ongoing cases, applications workflow and challenges
- supporting all staff to build on training, induction and coaching efforts
- bolstering flexibility in workflow allocation to better manage and monitor workloads.
- augmenting support for judges in relation to case and hearing management
The court indicated that the most significant change was discontinuing the Wellington Registry as a case processing and file management registry although it will remain open for hard copy document filing.
Two new roles were also created in line with the changes, namely judicial support manager and technical specialist. The judicial support manager assists the office of the chief Employment Court judge, while the technical specialist offers technical support and advice under the guidance of the court's registrar.
The court said that all case-related communications and documents should henceforth be directed to the registrar at Level 2, 41 Federal Street, Auckland, with postal submissions to be sent to DX CX10086, Auckland. Judges will continue to preside over cases throughout the country, even those outside of main centres.
Parties may still file proceedings and documents through the File and Pay system available at the official court website or by email, with the filing fee processed via direct credit. The process for filing statements of claim will still take note of the originating authority's office, with options for both physical and electronic submissions.
