Employers generally have no interest in treating their employees unfairly. It just isn’t good for business. As an employer, you likely know that if your staff are upset, they will be less productive. You also know that dealing with personal grievances consumes management time that could be better spent elsewhere.
You may be surprised to know that in some cases your employer can direct you to take some of your annual leave. That may seem outrageous to you. Isn’t your leave hard-earned and yours to take whenever you wish? Before you get too upset, you should know there are a
If you raise a personal grievance against your employer, you can ask the Employment Relations Authority to decide whether you have a claim and whether your employer should pay you anything for it. If a Member of the Authority considers that you have a valid personal grievance, they can order
Sometimes you don’t need an employee forever, but just for a short duration. However, you don’t want a casual employee – you want someone you can rely on to turn up and work a set number of hours every day, even if it is for a limited time. You are
There is more than one type of employment relationship, which means there is no “one-size-fits-all” employment agreement. So how do you know what employment agreement you should give your new recruit? That question can be answered by combining your answers to two more questions: Do you have an idea of
It appears that written references are becoming less relevant these days. Increasingly, employers will refuse to give references in writing, because it is difficult to ensure consistency and fairness to all employees. Many large employers make it a matter of policy not to give written references at all. In addition,
If you are an employer, there is a good chance you have had the thought that it is hard to dismiss employees in this country. You sense that the law is skewed against you and in favour of employees. To some extent that is true: there is a natural imbalance
The nature of employment law claims often allows early resolution without lengthy and costly litigation. That is because the sums at issue often do not justify the expense of court disputes. Often employees and employers would rather get on with their lives than expose themselves to further risk and cost.
I often hear employers and employees say restraint of trade clauses are not enforceable and that we don’t need to bother with them. That’s not exactly true. In fact, not so long ago the Employment Court encouraged us all to take post-employment restraints more seriously when it declared: ‘Gone are
The 90-day trial period has been part of the New Zealand employment law landscape since 2009, but employers and employees are still coming to terms with how it operates. In 2019 it was modified yet again to only apply to small to medium-sized employers (i.e. those with less than 20
