This year the recognised Public Holidays over the Christmas and New Year period are as follows:

When employment relationships start to go pear shaped, employers are often faced with very generalised Privacy Act requests, which can be difficult and time consuming to comply with.  We refer to such requests as a ‘fishing expedition’, whereby an individual makes a formal information privacy request for all information about themselves pursuant to Principle 6 of the Privacy Act 1993.

The Government will update the Equal Pay Act and amend the Employment Relations Act to implement recommendations of the Joint Working Group on Pay Equity.

If you thought working for food or accommodation was volunteering, think again. By law, anyone working in return for food and accommodation is an employee in accordance with section 6 of the Employment Relations Act 2000.

In a recent case out of the Christchurch Employment Relations Authority, two employees were unjustifiably dismissed before they had even commenced work.

For employees, the law change means they can:

From 1 July 2016 the maximum rate of paid parental leave for eligible employees and self-employed parents increased.

Speculation over the 90-day trial period and whether it is valid or not has come to light again with a recent case out of the Employment Relations Authority, see: Clark vs Lighthouse ECE Limited [2016] NZERA Auckland 281.

A perception has developed among litigants and practitioners that pursuing a claim under the Human Rights Act has the potential to be more lucrative than under the Employment Relations Act (when the nature of the claim is such that it could be pursued either way). The question is, does this perception have any merit?

Should a WorkSafe NZ Inspector come onto your site for an inspection (or after a serious incident), one of their requests will be to see your documentation to verify the training you have provided to your workers.  Can you put your hand on heart and say it’s all up to date???