An employee may bring a personal grievance for disadvantage if, “the employee’s employment, or one or more conditions thereof, is or are affected to the employee’s disadvantage by some unjustifiable action by the employer”. (Section 103 (1)(b) of the Employment Relations Act 2000).

The introduction of the new Employment Standards Legislation from 1 April 2016 places greater emphasis on the requirement for employers to keep clearer records for pay, time, leave and public holidays. The purpose of these changes are to make it easier to assess if employees are receiving their minimum entitlements as set out in legislation.

Employees and contractors have different rights and obligations under the employment legislation.  It is common that the distinction between an employee and contractor gets confused.

Employment standards are requirements such as the minimum wage, annual holidays and written employment agreements. They protect vulnerable workers and help to ensure workplaces are fair and competitive.

The task force, consisting of unions and employers, was previously expected to report back at the end of March.  It will now report back by the end of April.  We will update you when we hear more.

Posted on: Apr 08, 2016   Phil presented to 150 people from the Inter Church Bureau in Hamilton last week, followed by sessions in Tauranga and Rotorua.   They’ve been in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin this week and are moving on to Nelson next.  During 2015 a group of our Associates (Fiona, Phil, Leah and Robyn) undertook a massive project to custom-design a Health and Safety seminar, workbook and resources toolkit for the Inter Church Bureau, to provide vital information of the changes resulting from the

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is making changes to its Employment Mediation Services to ensure they’re organised and resourced to:

The Employment Standards Legislation Bill has passed third reading in parliament and will come into force 1 April 2016.

The Government wants to prevent unfair employment practices, and have now (from 1 April 2016) legislated against the use of Zero-hour contracts under the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2016.

Dating back to the pre-industrial era, women in New Zealand have been paid less than men. Over time, discrimination against women in the workplace has been recognised, and legislation has been developed to prevent it. New Zealand’s labour and human rights laws prohibit discrimination in pay or employment opportunity, and provide equal pay for men and women doing the same job, in both the public and private sectors.  Despite the best intentions of the legislation, the gender pay gap has remained.  In the June 2014 quarter, the gender pay gap in New Zealand was 9.9 per cent.  This means that a typical New Zealand male earned about 10 per cent more for an hour’s work than a typical New Zealand female.[1]