Posted on: Oct 26, 2012 Question: I applied for a management position with a publishing firm. X and I were short listed for the position. I know X personally. We are both single but I have day-to-day care of a young child. X got the job. I asked a friend who works for the firm why I had missed out on the job. She said that she had been told that the manager thought we were both good candidates but

The Privacy Commissioner said it was not necessary, in terms of Principle 1 of the Privacy Act, for a credit check to be carried out on a woman who 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.

An employee who, while she was on duty as bar manager, left the premises for only a few minutes to attend to personal matters was dismissed justifiably for serious misconduct.

Months of testing synthetic cannabis products like Kronic have paved the way for workplace testing. Kirk Hardy from the NZ Drug Detection Agency joins Matthew Beattie from workplace behavioural healthcare company Instep to discuss the implications.

Question: An employee’s last working day is 31 May 2012. His next holiday anniversary date is 1 April 2013. His annual leave due to 31 March 2012 is 30 days at $200 per day ($6,000). His gross earnings for the period 1 April 2012 to 31 May 2012 are $10,000.

In a disciplinary investigation an employee has an absolute right to know exactly what allegations have been made against him or her but the employee has no absolute right to question the person who has made the allegations.

Question: My client B has an employee who B has come to thoroughly dislike. The employee is a black hole of self-pity and misery. B dreads seeing the employee in the morning and has reached the stage where everything the employee does drives B to distraction. The employee’s employment agreement provides for termination of employment on four weeks’ notice. Can B legally dismiss the employee with four weeks’ notice? If not, is there any other action B can take to remedy the matter?

Recent cases of a fast-food worker who was punched by her manager, and an Auckland Council manager who verbally abused staff, highlight New Zealand’s legislative weaknesses in the area of workplace bullying, according to two academics.

The Employment Relations Act 2000 and the Minimum Wage Act 1983 require employers to keep records of time worked and wages paid for that time. Accordingly, employers should set up a system as required by the Acts. Note that it is an offence to fail to keep a wage and time record.

We’ve all heard about the controversial “Massey v Wrigley” case, which has redefined the way we need to conduct our selection processes when restructuring, at least for the time being.  We’re hoping this piece of case law will change before too long, and Government has indicated that if it’s not resurrected through the Courts then a law change will be looked at around this in the future.