Insights & Articles

This week the Employment Relations Authority ordered Rocket Lab Limited ("Rocket Lab") to pay $97,000.00 to an employee for an unjustified dismissal. Mr Owen was employed by Rocket Lab in January 2018 as a Vehicle Test Manager. Rocket Lab did not give Mr Owen an induction, he was essentially expected to 'get on with it'.

In the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown, many employers are assessing options available to them to save their business and are contemplating cutting staff. This decision should not be taken lightly as the underlying requirements for proper termination of employment still apply.

Should we include a probationary period in the employment agreement? As per our previous article, "90 Day Trial Periods", if you have 20 or more employees you cannot include a trial period in an employment agreement, as an alternative, many employers choose to include a probationary period.

The Covid-19 Lockdown is a unique situation that continues to change rapidly and this raises a number of questions and concerns for people, especially in the employment space. The situation surrounding Covid-19 requires flexibility from both employers and employees.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has released a discussion document late last year, inviting public consultation on an important subject affecting a large sector of New Zealand's working public: self-employed 'independent contractors', and companies and people who engage the services of such independent contractors, not just in the course of business, but even in some cases individual consumers utilising those services, for example ordinary member of the public using a 'ride sharing' platform. The deadline for members of the public to provide their feedback to MBIE expires at 5.00 pm on 14 February 2020.

New Zealand is now well and truly in the next stage of its strategy in responding to the Covid-19 global pandemic - learning to live with Covid-19, specifically the Omicron variant, in the community. This will see employers facing a number of new challenges, including the management of large numbers of absences in the workplace and coping with flexible working arrangements.

When it comes to a business sale you need to "know your business". It is far too easy for assumptions to be made that are not incorporated in thesale agreement itself. In this article, we comment briefly on some of the things you should think about before seeing an agent or putting pento paper.

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.

As you may be aware from recent media reports, changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA) and Holidays Act 2004 (HA) have now been passed intolaw and, for the most part, came into effect on 1 April 2011.