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Commenced on 4 April 2016, the new Health and Safety at Work Act ("the Act") replaced the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 which overhauled the way businesses and organisations must implement their health and safety policies. The HSWA also put in place a new statutory regime to enforce compliance obligations.

Issues on the “Zero Hour Contracts” for employees have been topical in the lead up to the Employment Standards Legislation Bill (“the Bill”), which is due to be passed on 1 April 2016.

The enactment of the Health and Safety Reform Bill is expected to occur in April 2015. Significant changes to the workplace health and safety framework will require preparation now to ensure compliance.

The minimum contribution rate for employers and employees has increased from 2% to 3% of gross salary or wages from the first pay period commencing onor after 1 April 2013.

All too often an employer may claim it had fair grounds for the actions it took to dismiss or discipline an employee, but did so too quickly or used a one sided process, and in doing faces a difficultly in justifying its actions before an Employment Relations Authority. In this article James D Turner, Partner, McVeagh Fleming lawyers, looks at the opportunity for an employer to consider bringing a counterclaim and two recent cases holding employees responsible for their conduct.