The Government estimates one-in-ten people could be unemployed by September due to COVID-19, and New Zealand has already seen a plethora of redundancies across a variety of sectors.
Employment advocate Ashleigh Fechney has offered advice for Kiwis who find themselves in this situation, saying first it's important to touch base with your family and colleagues.
"The first thing they should do is make sure they're with their families, talk to people, try to understand what's happened," she told The Project.
"Once that's happened, have a look through the documents and have a real reflection. If you think that something's happened and it's unfair, that's the first thing you should be looking at."
Next is to look at your individual employment agreement to see if your rights are being followed. If you don't have a copy of your contract, your employer has an obligation to hold one and send it to you if you ask for it.
Fechney says even though every worker has an employment agreement, they're all different so it's important to see if yours is being followed.
"In terms of, say, redundancy compensation, there's no inherent right for redundancy compensation, and in terms of notice period, every person will have something different. It's really important that people are checking that to make sure that their rights are being adhered to."
She believes the pandemic will absolutely change how contracts are drawn up, and says it's likely force majeure clauses will become more common.
"Where this sort of pandemic has happened, you don't have to pay your employees. We don't know how they're going to work and whether they're legal, but I think they're going to start getting added into every employment agreement going forward."
Former TAB media manager Mark Stafford recently lost his job, and says it's important to support everyone around you.
"My take out of it all is just support those that need support, and just with your ears and your understanding they'll come to the right thing themselves," he told The Project.
For him, he went through many emotions when he was made redundant because his job of 20 years was taken from him.
"First day was just unimaginable hurt and betrayal… and then you feel a bit lost. And I said to someone I feel like I'm at my own funeral but I'm alive, because it just tore every emotion from you.
"It's something that's been part of me for 20 years and it's just been taken away. And I think the natural human reaction is to blame someone, and there's no one to blame, it's just circumstance."
