Facing a restructure
From the consultation letter to the next payslip, in the order it happens, with the money worked out at every step.
Ends with: Knowing what the process must include, what you will be paid after tax, how long Work and Income makes you wait, and whether redeployment, contracting or the payout leaves you better off.
This pathway explains the process and the money. It does not tell you whether your restructure was genuine, and it is not legal or immigration advice. Steps 6 and 13 say when to get a lawyer, a union or a licensed immigration adviser, and the 90 day clock on a personal grievance runs through every other step.
A restructure arrives as a document with a deadline, and most of what is written for the people inside it starts after the decision: budgeting, the benefit, the job search. This pathway starts before it, because the consultation window is the only point at which the outcome is not yet fixed, and the things you ask for in that fortnight decide what the rest of the process is worth.
So the order here follows the process as it actually runs. The proposal and your response. The three kinds of offer that can come back, reconfirmation, reassignment and a comparable role, and what refusing each one costs. Whether to volunteer. What your agreement pays, worked through clause by clause on one public service collective agreement, because there is no statutory redundancy payment in New Zealand and the number is in the agreement, not the Act. What can be negotiated when the formula cannot. Whether the process was genuine, and the 90 day clock that runs while you deal with everything else.
Only then the money after the job: the tax, which is an extra pay at one rate on the whole payment; the last fortnight as a checklist; the Work and Income stand-down turned into a date and a dollar gap; the KiwiSaver hardship rules, which come last, not first. Then the three questions this round has made common: whether any insurance responds, what coming back as a contractor really pays under the 2026 gateway test, and what a restructure means for a work visa tied to the employer. The last step is the first payslip at the next place, and getting it right.
Every figure on the way has a calculator behind it. Two were built for this pathway: one that compares a redeployment offer with the payout over the next year, and one that turns the stand-down into a date.
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Read the proposal properly
The consultation is the only point where the decision is not yet made. Good faith requires the information behind it and a real chance to respond, and both have to be asked for in writing.
8 min read -
Know what you can be offered
Reconfirmation, reassignment and a comparable role each have a meaning in your agreement or the Act, and refusing the wrong one can cost the payout.
7 min read -
Decide whether to put your hand up
An expression of interest is not a right and the answer is the employer's, but the sums, the insurance wording and the visa question are yours to check first.
6 min read -
Find out what your agreement pays
The formula is in your collective or individual agreement, not in the Act. One agreement is worked through clause by clause; yours may differ.
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Work out what can move
The exit date, notice, leave, the reference and a settlement clause move more often than the formula does. Ask in writing, as one list.
7 min read -
Check the process was real
A grievance has a 90 day clock and a specific test, and the 2026 changes took the right away above $200,000. Knowing both tells you whether to see a lawyer this week.
8 min read -
See what tax comes out
Redundancy is an extra pay: one rate on the whole payment, no ACC levy, no KiwiSaver, and student loan deductions if you have one.
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Run the last fortnight
Final pay, leave, KiwiSaver, insurance, the reference and the systems you lose access to, in date order, with the Work and Income application lodged before the last day.
Work out your own: Final Pay Calculator 5 min read -
Work out the stand-down
Work and Income makes you wait one or two weeks, then pays a week in arrears. This step turns that into a date and a dollar gap.
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Know the hardship rules before you need them
A hardship withdrawal needs the supervisor satisfied that other funding is exhausted, and it has a cost at retirement that this step puts a number on.
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Check whether any cover responds
Redundancy cover exists only as an add-on, both published wordings exclude a restructure known about when the cover started, and the waiting period can run for months.
5 min read -
Price yourself as a contractor
Coming back to the same desk as a contractor has a five limb legal test since 2026 and a day rate that must cover leave, KiwiSaver, ACC and the gaps.
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Protect your visa status
A work visa tied to the job, the employer and the location does not pause for a restructure. This step is the timeline and the order of calls.
6 min read -
Start the next job on the right foot
Tax code, KiwiSaver rate, student loan and the budget reset, so the first payslip at the next place is right.
5 min read
When to stop and get someone else
See an employment lawyer or your union before you sign anything that settles a claim, a licensed immigration adviser if you hold a work visa, and a financial adviser before you cancel or claim on any insurance. Employment New Zealand answers questions about the process free of charge, and Community Law centres give free employment advice.
This pathway is information, not financial advice. Rates, thresholds and rules change; every guide carries the date it was last reviewed.
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