Leighton Associates

Employment law, insolvency and AML research and reporting
Te Rangahau ture Mahi me te tari Purongo
Demystifying employment law since 2019
 

On paper, it’s a fail. But it would have been a sin not to have tried. In 2022, two security guards fell out. One had worked for the other’s company for about six months. At the time, the company was technically insolvent and entered liquidation a few months after a personal grievance claim was raised. Right or wrong, the grievance did not die with the company and the former employee continued to incur legal costs. The Authority held an investigation meeting about the

On Monday, the Government committed up to $60 million to keep New Zealand's only cement manufacturing plant open. The more interesting number is the one Fletcher Building had already put on closing it: up to $345 million. Closing an industrial site isn't free. Fletcher's 2025 annual report broke the cost of walking away from the Portland plant near Whangārei into two parts. Up to $165 million is a non-cash impairment: the plant sits on the balance sheet as an asset, and clo

Former Christchurch city councillor and bar / restaurant owner Gordon Freeman managed to have one of his receptionists fined $500 for giving “only” two weeks’ notice instead of six, after she resigned in 2012. Then he got squeezed out of the industry. Freeman operated the Redwood Hotel / Sequoia 88 through his company G L Freeman Holdings Ltd, which ceased trading around 2015 and was struck off the Companies register soon after. A 2013 determination by Helen Doyle, Member of

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) recently found that a personal trainer was unjustifiably dismissed by Auckland City Council. This was reported by Stuff and Radio NZ. The link to the determination is here. ERA Member Matthew Piper recorded that Ilalio Solomona “started his own personal training business in 2019, with a small number of clients”. Solomona started working at the Birkenhead Pool and Leisure Centre, operated by Auckland City Council, in May 2022. Rober

A failing seven year old road freight company was put into liquidation by the Inland Revenue Department in May 2025 for failing to account for tax. The size of the hole is approximately $300,000 according to the Official Assignee’s first liquidator's report. A couple of months before Stland Contract Ltd was placed in liquidation (and we have no idea how to pronounce that name), Mr Shea, an employee of three months had raised personal grievances for unjustified dismissal and

A question I get a lot, usually from a creditor who already suspects the answer: "If the liquidator is paid first, how does anyone else get paid?" It's a fair question, and the honest answer concedes part of it. The liquidator is paid first. The costs of the liquidation come off the top. But paid first is a long way from paid everything. Creditors don't go unpaid because of the fee. They go unpaid because the company has failed owing more than it can pay. The fee pays fo