15 March 2019: A significant number of changes have recently been introduced into the legislation governing employment relationships.  Some of these changes have already taken effect, whilst there are further changes coming in April, May and June this year.

25 September 2018: The Equal Pay Amendment Bill has been introduced to Parliament on the 125 year anniversary of women getting the vote. The Bill provides employees with the right to make a pay equity claim and sets out the process for the parties to follow if a claim has merit. The Bill specifies that a claim will have merit if it relates to work predominantly performed by women and there are reasonable grounds to believe that the work has historically or currently is undervalued. The commentary has made it clear that an employee will have a low threshold to meet for raising a claim

A recent Authority case yet again highlights the serious consequences business owners face for not paying employees in accordance with their minimum statutory entitlements.

We have positions available in both our Conflict Resolution and ER Support Teams, for which we are looking for people with a strong understanding of the New Zealand employment relations jurisdiction and best practice ER/HR advice.  Depending on your level of experience and expertise, your work could involve a variety of things from employment agreements, policies, health and safety, disciplinary and performance matters, recruitment, restructuring and redundancies through to high level employment relations strategy, collective bargaining, dispute resolution, conflict management, mediations, investigations and change management.

3 August 2018: New Zealand has become the first country in the world to create new entitlements for domestic violence victims in their workplace, including a right to take up to 10 days of paid leave per year.

22 June 2018:The Domestic Violence – Victim’s Protection Bill has passed its second reading in Parliament. The purpose of the Bill is to increase employment protection for victims of domestic violence in the workplace by reducing any existing barriers that may prevent them from having stable employment.

22 June 2018: From 1 July 2018, the number of weeks a parent can receive the government-funded parental leave payments will increase from 18 weeks to 22 weeks.

5 June 2018: The Government’s work on establishing Fair Pay Agreements, helping design a collective bargaining system to lift wages and productivity in New Zealand, will be led by former Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jim Bolger, says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway.

29 May 2018: A taskforce that brings business, workers and Government together has been established to recommend changes to the Holidays Act 2003, says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway.

Unions representing retail workers are receiving numerous complaints from employees around the country after a recent Employment Court case has ensured that employers can no longer plead ignorance to avoid paying employees for participating in work related activities outside of work hours [1].