A health and safety guideline for directors titled ‘Good Governance Practices Guideline for Managing Health and Safety Risks’ has been launched (20 May)

Produced by the Institute of Directors (IoD) and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), the guideline is a response to the key findings and recommendations in the final report of the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy.

An employee filed a Personal Grievance (for unjustified constructive dismissal) alleging that her employer failed to deal properly with a complaint about her being bullied at work.

Effective from April 2015, New Zealand workers will no longer miss out on a paid public holiday for ANZAC Day when the holiday falls on a weekend.

Although NZ allows for 11 paid public holidays, Waitangi & ANZAC Days have always been observed on the date they fall, meaning that if they are on weekends, most workers don't get a Monday off.

Restraints of trade clauses for employees are often thought as being "not worth the paper they are written on". However, this belief is often completely wrong.

The Employment Relations Authority and Employment Court have recently upheld restraint of trade clauses in a number of cases, where employers have applied restrictions that are reasonable. The most common mistake is when employers make the restrictions too harsh.

Mr D took a personal grievance after he was dismissed by his employer (P), while he was being performance managed. The performance management plan started on 9 February and he was dismissed 14 days later.

KiwiSaver has recently turned five years old.

So, employees who are 65 and have been a member of KiwiSaver for 5 years can now withdraw their money. It also means that employer contributions for those employees are no longer compulsory.

But how will employers know when their employees meet the criteria....?

Companies today are being exposed to major challenges when they consider the increasing difficulty of finding skilled employees, a younger workforce (Gen Y) with different attitudes about work and a growing group of older employees (baby boomers) heading towards retirement, and above all, retaining their best people.

Do employers need to introduce bonuses?

It is over 10 years since the Employment Relations Act (ERA) became legislation and in so doing set out a requirement to have a written employment agreement in place for every person you employ. Surprisingly, after all this time there are still employers that don't have employment agreements in place, risking hefty fine of up to $10,000.

It is all too easy to employ people on the wrong sorts of employment agreements. These are the recognised definitions -

1. Looking for an exact replica.

You don't have to have a person who has done the exact job in the exact industry at a similar company. Indentifying best fit doesn't always mean industry experience. Skilled candidates from different industries may have something new to offer - transferable skills.

 2. The short term fix.

Employee? Contractor. Employee. Contractor. Employee!
Even the Courts were confused.

When is a contractor an employee? Or an employee a contractor?

At the time of planning for a new financial year part of this process is wanting to improve performance of the three P's (profit, productivity and performance). This leads to setting budgets and production targets and reviewing staff performance.
Yes, the dreaded performance appraisal.

(November 2010)
The new Immigration Act 2009 takes effect on 29 November. 

Tread carefully is the word. Two words actually. The option to use a 90 trial is available to all employers from1 April 2011 when they take on new employees. But "employers should exercise caution". There are still procedures to follow before you dismiss anyone.