20-Feb-15

In the past it has been thought that getting a new employee to sign and return a covering letter would be sufficient acknowledgment and acceptance of an employment offer and the terms and conditions set out in an attached draft employment agreement. The Employment Relations Authority suggested recently that signing a covering letter might not be sufficient to signify acceptance of the agreement itself.

With the recent amendments to the Employment Relations Act 2000 removing the “30-day rule” from 6 March 2015, there may be some confusion as to what employment agreement employers should be offering new employees.

The Employment Relations Authority said an expired final written warning was part of the circumstances that an employer was entitled to take into account when considering an appropriate sanction under the justification test in section 103A of the Employment Relations Act 2000, and that equally a fair and reasonable employer could be expected to have considered a situation where there had been no issues arising since an expired warning.

The barrier to challenging Authority determinations on procedure (section 179(5) of the Employment Relations Act 2000) continues to present problems. Notwithstanding the Act’s objective of allowing the Authority a clear run in its investigations unimpeded by challenges, there is no avoiding the fact that “procedural” is not synonymous with “minor” or “technical”.  Nowhere is this more stark than on occasions in which the Authority has declined to make a non-publication order (of names and/or details). As Judge Inglis noted recently in H v A Limited “[t]he horse will have well and truly bolted” in terms of the damage done to parties and also affected non-parties if such a decision goes unchallenged until the Authority has completely finished its investigation.

It’s important to follow a structured process when hiring a new employee, to ensure you get the right person for the job.  A thorough recruitment process should include the following five items which are expanded upon below:

28-Jan-15

Effective 1 April 2015, there are changes to the tax treatment of allowances that you might provide your employees. Allowances are payments made to an employee in addition to their salary or wage and can include payments for accommodation, food or clothing.

An employer was ordered to pay an employee wage arrears for four days’ sick leave taken in March 2014 despite the fact the employee only produced vague medical certificates to justify the leave in April 2014.

Introduction