There is no legal definition of part-time and casual employees. Generally speaking, part-time workers are employed on a permanent basis for less than the ordinary number of hours per week. Part-timers may, for example, work for a few hours a day or for a few days a week on an ongoing basis. Part-time workers have all the rights and entitlements of full-time workers.

It was argued, however, that all were required to pick up litter before performing their various maintenance tasks and that this, combined with other tasks such as cleaning work vehicles and public barbeques, constituted the provision of cleaning services notwithstanding that the bulk of their tasks were, variously, gardening, mowing, edging, the maintenance of fixtures or horticultural labouring.

The case law is relatively clear regarding drug and alcohol policies and it’s important that you get all elements right or it won’t be worth the paper it’s written on!

Employment agreements may include a term (called an abandonment clause) to the effect that an employee who fails to attend work for a consecutive number of days (usually a minimum of three days), without consent or without notifying the employer shall be deemed to have abandoned his or her employment. In such a situation, the employee is treated as if he or she had terminated the employment and there is no dismissal.

Constructive dismissal occurs in the following situations:

The most commonly used social media sites include:

There are two major Employment Court cases on drug and alcohol testing in the workplace:  NZ Amalgamated Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union Inc v Air New Zealand Ltd (‘Air NZ”) and Maritime Union of New Zealand Inc v TLNZ Ltd (“MUNZ”).

Some of the current rules around collective bargaining limit choice, flexibility and the effectiveness of the bargaining process.  The Government has announced that they intend to make a number of improvements to the Employment Relations Act this term to help provide a fair and flexible environment, including:

Take a look at this quirky video on change management. It’s only three minutes long and provides some useful tips if you’re about to embark on a change process in your organisation.

There has been a long-standing presumption that restraints of trade (RoT) are often unlawful and unenforceable. It is no longer safe to assume they are “not worth the paper they are written on”.