News

A recent decision by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has highlighted the high financial cost of breaching the minimum employment law standards following investigation by a Labour Inspector.  Employers need to be aware that the Inspectorate is well resourced and proactively looking into minimum employment standards, including record keeping.  Media attention this week on the new statistics that 1 in 10 employees do not have written employment agreements signals that this attention on “the basics” is set to continue.

Copeland Ashcroft employment law specialist Charlie Arms-Harris recently spoke with Jonny Turner on the Hokonui Muster about the recent legislative changes in employment agreements.

LISTEN HERE 

The Copeland Ashcroft Law Team recently presented a seminar roadshow on the crossover between employment law and health and safety obligations, and one of the areas of focus in this presentation was the management of work related bullying, harassment, and stress.  This article summarises some of the “need to know” basic tips from the roadshow.

The Copeland Ashcroft Law Team recently presented a seminar roadshow on the crossover between employment law and health and safety obligations, and one of the areas of focus in this presentation was the management of drug and alcohol testing in the workplace.  This article summarises some of the “need to know” basic tips from the roadshow.

Recent changes to employment and health and safety law mean that all employers need to update their health and safety plans and employment agreements.  We’re offering fixed price reviews of your health and safety plans and employment agreements – contact us for your fixed price and to discuss how we can help you make sure you’re covered in terms of the changes.

Employment law changes:
On 1 April 2016, amendments were made to several key pieces of employment law.  The impact of the new law included:

Copeland Ashcroft Law is very pleased to announce that it has appointed Charlie Arms-Harris as an Associate working out of its Queenstown office.  Having worked as a senior solicitor for the firm since 2011, Charlie is well known and respected in the Otago and Southland regions as an employment, immigration and health and safety lawyer with a proven track record.

The Employment Court and then the Court of Appeal recently considered the issue of pay equity following a claim under the Equal Pay Act 1972 (Act) by aged care workers, where the workforce is predominantly made up of women. 

In essence, pay equity means gender doesn't affect what people are paid and women receive the same pay as men for doing the same work, and also for doing work that is different, but of equal value. The value of work is assessed in terms of skills, knowledge, responsibility, effort and working conditions.

The Vulnerable Children’s Act 2014 (Act) was introduced to prevent people with relevant serious convictions from working alone with children.  The Act prescribes new requirements for all government funded employers to conduct specified background checking called ‘safety checks’ on all new and existing employees and contractors who have regular and unsupervised contact with children, “children’s workers”.  Children’s workers are defined as “core” or “non-core” workers, depending on the type of contact they have with children.

Safety checks involve:

It’s a common misconception that an employer can simply not require an employee to attend work where a disciplinary investigation is underway.  However, this amounts to suspension unless it is agreed with the employee, and unlawful suspensions are risky in terms of potential personal grievances.  Employers therefore need to tread carefully when sending an employee away from the workplace.

What is suspension?
A suspension from work is where an employee remains employed but is directed to temporarily stay away from the workplace.

Throughout the course of an employment relationship, an employee, particularly those at a senior level, will have access to commercially sensitive information about the business they work for including client lists, prices, marketing, trade secrets and intellectual property.  Understandably, where an employee then leaves the business the employer often wants to protect this information to maintain their client relationships and the ongoing viability of their business.