Court says consultation materials can be enough even when employees demand more
Wētā FX has successfully fought off demands to hand over extensive internal documents before a former employee even filed his case.
The New Zealand Employment Court on February 3, 2026 declined Brendan Cullen's application for pre-commencement discovery, ruling that the information the company had already provided was sufficient for him to formulate his claims against his September 10, 2025 dismissal.
Cullen, a senior test engineer, was made redundant as part of a business-wide restructure affecting over 100 roles. He lodged a personal grievance on October 24, 2025, alleging his dismissal was substantively unjustifiable and procedurally unfair, including because of what he claimed was the company's systematic failure to provide true and relevant information.
Rather than filing his statement of problem with the Employment Relations Authority, Cullen went directly to court seeking pre-commencement discovery of what he described as extensive information relevant to the redundancy decision. He argued the company had deliberately withheld and wrongly denied the existence of documents about its restructure rationale.
The company had provided affected employees with a consultation pack on July 31, 2025. The pack confirmed Wētā FX was prioritizing roles contributing directly to application development, pipeline development and research innovation, with a reduction in technical supporting roles. For...
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