July 2015 Newsletter

30 minutes to look over their draft employment agreement on their first day of work was determined to be insufficient time to seek advice, even though the candidate had been sent the agreement 4 days earlier....full story

All about 90 Day Trial Periods in the Employers Toolbox online. How to implement, check and terminate under the provisions
...full story

The Government has approved a package of measures to strengthen enforcement of employment standards, as referred to in previous newsletters. These measures include including tougher sanctions.
...full story

A recent spate of businesses ignoring WorkSafe NZ prohibition notices sees heavy penalties imposed by the courts.
...full story

'Zero hour contracts' are not defined under New Zealand Legislation, however by press release the MBIE have announced some changes in the pipeline.

• Agreed hours must be stated in the Employment Agreement
• Employers will not be able to cancel a shift without reasonable notice or compensation
• Employers will not be able to put unreasonable restrictions on secondary employment
• Stronger limitations on Employee wage deductions

These are some of the changes proposed by the Government in order to address the potentially unfair concept of the 'zero hour' contract. However this is only a proposal at this stage and these changes will be reflected in an Employment Standards Bill to be introduced to Parliament later this year. So the implementation of these is still a long way off.