It is generally well known that you must have a good reason to dismiss an employee under New Zealand law. The sorts of good reasons you may be familiar with include: that the employee’s position is redundant; that the employee has misbehaved; or that the employee’s performance is not up to
Most employers will tolerate an employee showing up late for work once in a while. We’ve all had a bus arrive late, found ourselves stuck in bad traffic, or had a sick child that needed urgent care. In those cases, you’d expect your employee to get in touch, to let
Record numbers of people are immigrating to New Zealand. If you run a business that is in constant need of more staff, that is great news for you. But when hiring for vacant roles, you must be careful to observe the laws about who can and cannot work here. In
I have written elsewhere about certain pitfalls you should be aware of when hiring staff on a 90-day trial period. Sometimes, though, you just need a checklist to make sure you are doing the right thing. Who has the time to review all the most recent case law on a
“But don’t I have to give him three warnings before I dismiss him?” That was the question an employer asked me as they were pondering whether it was time to dismiss an unruly staff member. It’s fair to say this client of mine is not alone. Many employers and employees
You may have heard the term “constructive dismissal” and wondered what it meant. I accept the terminology is a little unusual. It sounds like something that happens to a builder when he is laid off. Or perhaps, like the term “constructive criticism”, it refers to a dismissal was helpful in
Suspending an employee from work is a serious matter. So much so that the Court of Appeal has described suspension as a “drastic measure“. Why is it serious, you ask? Well, for one, you risk breaching the employee’s employment agreement if, without good reason, you stop them from carrying out
Employees sometimes want to know whether something they have done is worthy of dismissal. Unfortunately, there are no stock answers. Employment law requires an assessment of fairness taking into account all of the circumstances. While it may be fair to dismiss an employee in one case for some particular conduct,
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
