With the change in Government, comes the customary change to employment laws. Below is a summary of the changes most relevant to the retail sector. 90 day trial period restricted to businesses with less than 20 employees The statutory 90 day trial period will become a thing of the past for More »

Many retailers require employees to be present before their store opens for a quick overview of the day ahead and some are often required to stay after hours at the end of the day for cashing up, or while the last customers make their way out of the store. Employees are often not paid for the extra More »

A new report by the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor Sir Peter Gluckman released this week suggests that the recently revised guidelines for decontamination of properties where methamphetamine has been smoked are too strict. Those standards were published by Standards New Zealand, after More »

The Government has announced that a Holidays Act Working Group will be established to carry out a full review of the Holidays Act 2003. In recent times, it has become clear that there are widespread compliance issues with the Holidays Act. MBIE estimates that between 10 to 40% of the workforce More »

Changes of government often see significant shifts in the employment law landscape in New Zealand and the election of the Labour led government in late 2017 was no exception. To this end the Employment Relations Amendment Bill ( the Amendment Bill ) was introduced into Parliament in January 2018 More »

In March 2018 the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment announced that it would be launching a review of insurance contract law. The objectives of the review are to ensure that the law related to insurance means that insurers and insureds are able to transact with confidence at all points More »

Submissions on the Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Bill ( Bill ) are currently open. The purpose of the Bill is to extend protection for employees in triangular employment relationships. Under the Bill, a triangular employment relationship exists where an employee is employed More »

For many directors and business owners, corporate governance is a background function that is secondary to the day to day operations of the company. For those whom strong corporate governance is an ingrained way of life, independent non-executive director positions may follow with other larger, More »

The Privacy Commissioner has recently held that a woman’s privacy was breached when her former employer sent an email to its employees saying she had been dismissed for possessing illicit drugs (Case Note 276280 [2018] NZPriv Cmr 2). The email fell within the meaning of “personal More »