Phillip de Wattignar

Phillip is a specialist employment relations practitioner and respected negotiator. He is an experienced communicator and advocate who has appeared before the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Court.  He is a qualified employment mediator and worked for the Department of Labour 2000 - 2012.

Phillip’s career in workplace relations  began in 1983  and includes  work as a union organiser, union secretary and union advocate in the Employment Tribunal.  After completing mediation and arbitration papers at Massey University in 2000, he was employed as a mediator. His knowledge and ability to  lead negotiation discussions and encourage employers and employees to find solutions to difficult employment relations problems and legal disputes is valued.

Phillip is dedicated to providing employers and employees with  ways to maintain fairness and harmony at work.  His experience  has shown him  that early involvement  of  competent employment relations practitioners is the best way to deal with problems and conflict at work. It allows those involved to deal with  problems quickly and at a low level so they can maintain relationships and get back to normal. This is better and easier on everyone than fighting long and expensive legal cases with lawyers.

Phillip is mad about  motorcycles and races a Triumph Daytona 675 in the Clubmans’ class. He also enjoys  gardening,  carefully observed by  Elspeth’s   spoilt black cat  Rita.

Elspeth McLean

Elspeth is  a highly accomplished communicator  who understands the importance of good communication in the workplace.

She  has worked as a journalist and is best known for  her newspaper columns  in the Otago Daily Times.

She is  a popular, if somewhat reluctant,  public speaker.

She has a  strong sense of what is right and wrong in a workplace and has empathy with  those who know they have a problem and need to work it through with someone supportive.

Elspeth  has a passion for teaching and encouraging others to learn, including  those with learning difficulties. She teaches shorthand to  Media Studies students at Aoraki Polytechnic and recently undertook training in adult literacy tutoring.

Outside her paid work roles, she  has raised four sons, and  held  leadership  positions in a variety of organisations including Playcentre, a school board of trustees and an after-school centre. She has served  as a  union delegate and continues to take a keen interest in workplace issues as a board member on Workplace Support.  Experiences  with informal  dispute resolution in the community  led her  to complete mediation training through Massey University where she  met Phillip.

In her spare time she reads, knits and has been striving to produce the perfect savoury scone.

Phillip de Wattignar and Elspeth McLean