Insights & Articles

Employment law can be a bit of a "political football", and with each new government one may expect changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000 ("Act"). Honouring that tradition, the new Labour and NZ First Government passed the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2018 on 5 December 2018. The Amendment Act strengthens union and employee rights at the expense of employer rights, including abolishing use of the 90-day trial period by employers with 20 or more employees.

The situation seems simple. A promise is made (by the "promisor") to someone (the "promisee"), that they will be rewarded in the promisor's Will for work or services carried out. Time passes, and the (now deceased) promisor has failed to follow through on their promise, leaving no such reward (or less than what was promised) in their Will. The promisee can then claim against the deceased's estate for the remuneration that was promised to them. Such claim is made under the Law Reform (Testamentary Promises) Act 1949.

Casual employees are commonplace in many businesses and a useful resource that allows flexibility in meeting employers' needs. However, too many employers fail to recognise the difference between casual and permanent full and part-time employees, including the key differences in employment rights, responsibilities and entitlements. It is important that employers understand the distinction to avoid unwanted consequences.

The AML/CFT Act was extended to lawyers and conveyancers on 1 July 2018. It will be extended to accountants on 1 October 2018 and will be further extended to Real Estate Agents on 1 January 2019. We also consider many financial service providers (including in some cases of businesses offering credit contracts) may be unaware that they are required to comply with the AML/CFT Act or may not be meeting the standards required.

The Personal Property Securities Amendment Regulations 2018 will come into force on 1 October 2018 and make a number of technical amendments to the Personal property Securities Regulations 2001.

A recent Court of Appeal decision (Autumn Tree(1)) makes it clear that where a company enters a contract and only one director signs it:

A special status is given to the "family home" in relationship property disputes under the relevant legislation, the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 ("the Act").

It is a fairly familiar situation: an employee sustains an illness, or suffers an injury – probably due to no fault of their own or their employer - and is unable to work for a long period of time. Uncertainty may arise about when he or she can return to work, if ever. Repeated visits to a doctor or specialist, frustratingly for both the employee and the employer, fail to provide a definite prognosis about when the employee will be fit to return to work or, indeed, whether they will ever be able to do so. Meanwhile the employee may be receiving no income, or less than their full former salary or wage while receiving an ACC benefit. The employer is also left in the difficult and uncertain position of not being able to hire a permanent replacement employee but needing to reassign the absent employee's tasks to others, or make do with a potentially more expensive temporary employee.

One of the notable law reforms which was touted in Labour's election campaign has been unveiled in the Employment Relations Amendment Bill 2018 ("Bill") - the restriction on the use of the 90 day trial period.

In the third article in this series we focus briefly on the second limb of due diligence that should be considered when purchasing a vessel namely, legal due diligence.