As part of an employment investigation, an employer collected personal information from a man’s work computer. The information collected included emails sent to and from the work computer, as well as key stroke logs for the computer. The employer used information collected from key stroke logging to access the man’s personal web-based email account and copy several emails.

A man applied for a job in a government department. As part of the application process the department used a company which specialised in pre-employment screening of potential employees. The man was unsuccessful in his application, and made a request under principle 6 of the Privacy Act for the personal information held by the government agency in relation to his application. Some information was provided, but some was withheld under section 29(1)(b) of the Privacy Act.

A woman told the Privacy Commission that she had applied for a job as a part-time retail assistant with a large retail chain employer.  The job application had been completed online on the store’s website. As part of the process she was required to consent to the store carrying out a credit check on her. The woman’s application was unsuccessful, and she complained to the Privacy Commission that she considered the store’s collection of her credit report was unnecessary for the purpose of determining whether she was a suitable applicant.

Section 4(1) of the Employment Relations Act 2000 imposes an absolute duty on the parties to an employment relationship not to mislead or deceive the other.

An organisation may allow employees to work from home (or some other remote location) in a number of different circumstances. It may be part of an organisation’s encouragement of work-life balance; or it may be in response to an employee’s request for flexible working arrangements; or it may be temporary because the workplace is inaccessible or unavailable for some reason.

Simon Bridges, 7 August 2013

Labour Inspectors make sure that employers operate within the law in relation minimum entitlements – that is things like minimum wages, annual leave, and public holidays.  They can take action to enforce minimum standards through the Employment Relations Authority.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) is a more formal step to resolving an employment dispute or personal grievance if mediation doesn’t work. The ERA is an independent body set up to investigate workplace disputes. 

Both employers and employees can lodge an application in the ERA, the filing fee currently costs $71.56.

If you are having a dispute with your employer/employee you should first try and discuss it with them. This isn’t always easy but it is a necessary step towards solving any dispute. If you can’t resolve the problem with your employer/employee then you have a few other options available:

Background: I own a motel that currently has 28 rooms. I work a few hours myself and I employ a permanent part-time manager. I also have three employees (the cleaners) who are part-time with variable hours who carry out cleaning, servicing rooms and “whatever” turns up on the day. The manager helps with those duties after dealing with administrative matters. I am converting half the rooms to apartments, so will only have a ten-room establishment. I will no longer need a part-time manager. Anticipating what is likely to happen, two of the cleaners have decided to return to study and have advised they will be terminating employment in two months’ time. After the conversion is carried out, I will be able to run the business with only two cleaners. The manager has become overbearing and I will be glad to give him notice of redundancy and work on my own again.