Publications

We produce a range of articles, legal publications and resources on a wide range of legal subjects and hot topics critical to our clients needs. These include briefings on key legal issues, newsletters on practice areas and industry developments via the below headings.

Pages

Displaying 41 - 60 of 376 results

Working time before and after work is paid time

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 »

Methamphetamine contamination: a new era?

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 »

Paid parental leave set to increase from 1 July 2018

Paid parental leave is set to increase from 18 weeks to 22 weeks from 1 July 2018. The number of “keeping in touch days” is also set to increase. From 1 July 2018, when paid parental leave is increased to 22 weeks, an employee will be able to work up to 52 hours without losing their More »

Holidays Act review announced

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 »

The ins and outs of drug and alcohol testing in the workplace

Drug and alcohol use by employees has been a long standing issue for workplaces in New Zealand, as has the question of how to lawfully screen for drug and alcohol use in the workplace. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, employers’ obligations in relation to minimising or More »

The changing landscape of employment law

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 »

No need to fear: getting your head around the GDPR

If you have been reading anything about the impending go-live date of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you might be feeling a bit daunted: more stringent data protection standards, heightened rights for individuals, harsher penalties on data controllers and processors for failing to More »

Review of insurance contract law is underway

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 »

Penalties reach new levels in latest health and safety case

Mining company Oceana Gold has been sentenced after the death of a worker in July 2016. It has been ordered to pay almost $1.4 million in fines and reparation. The worker died after the loader he was driving entered an underground tunnel at Oceana Gold's Correnso mine in Waihi and tipped over. More »

To govern or not to govern – why is it important?

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 »

New privacy legislation for a digital world

Twenty five years ago, when the Privacy Act 1993 came in to force, emails and the internet were in their infancy. Shopping wasn’t conducted online and delivered to your door direct from overseas, and social media hadn’t been contemplated. Scams came via fax machine or leaflets in your More »

Higher compensatory awards for personal grievances

Recent cases in the Employment Court and Employment Relations Authority have seen employees receiving increased awards for hurt and humiliation compensation. Until recently, the quantum of awards had not changed significantly over the past 20 years. For the 2013-2016 period compensatory awards for More »

Privacy Bill introduced

A new Privacy Bill has been tabled in Parliament. It introduces some small but notable changes to the privacy regulatory framework in New Zealand. The Bill (once passed) will affect your business. Its passage through the parliamentary process is one you should keep an eye on. Below is a summary of More »

Christchurch’s Golden Age

‘What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but woven into the lives of others.’ Pericles - elected Strategos of Athens, 494-429 BCE These words were said by Pericles during his leadership of Athens, when his city was left in ruins after the devastating More »

Resource management act: are neighbours affected parties?

In the context of resource consent applications, people often consider themselves to be affected by activities occurring in close proximity to their properties. However, whether a person is “an affected person” under the resource management act is a complex question – there is no More »

Pages

Displaying 41 - 60 of 376 results