Many employers want to reward employees for outstanding achievements. One way to do that is to give your staff a bonus – to provide an incentive for higher levels of performance. Time and again, I see great intentions to begin with. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always play out as intended. Either it
Personal grievances come in more than one flavour. The most common one you hear about is the personal grievance for unfair dismissal. But did you know there are nine other types of personal grievance under New Zealand law? WHAT IS A PERSONAL GRIEVANCE ANYWAY? Before listing off the different types,
Did you know that the law requires you to do certain things when making an offer of employment? The law recognises there’s an imbalance of bargaining power between employers and employees. Employers hold all the cards, so to speak. So the idea is to make employers give employees a fair
Your boss just gave you a letter. It’s not good. The letter invites you to a meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Monday morning in the boardroom. They want to discuss allegations that are being made against you. They say they have evidence that you’ve misbehaved. You know this could turn
I’ve written before about what counts as a good reason to dismiss an employee. Those reasons include misconduct, poor performance, redundancy, and even incompatibility. But what if your employee is physically incapable of working? Medical incapacity may seem like a harsh reason to end someone’s employment. But it can be a
“You’re redundant.” Those aren’t the nicest words you’ll ever hear. But many people face redundancy from their jobs at least once in their careers. For some, going through the restructuring process is harrowing enough. But to actually lose your job through no fault of your own, that’s another level. Your
Every employee has minimum legal entitlements. The right to annual holidays, to be paid the minimum wage and the like. It doesn’t matter if these entitlements are not mentioned in their employment agreement. Their right to these benefits stems from various statutes. They are not a contractual matter. That means
We can all mutter things under our breath about other folks at times. That driver who cuts us off. The waiter who doesn’t bring us our food. The strawberry jam manufacturers who screw the jar lids on too tightly. Muttering such things doesn’t normally get us into trouble. We let
Restraints of trade are special clauses you can insert into employment agreements. They can curb what employees do after their employment with you ends. However, they must be reasonable if you hope to enforce them through the Authority or Court. But it may not be employees that concern you. Your fear
I have explained elsewhere that you must pay your staff at least the minimum wage. One of the points I noted there was that you must pay the minimum wage for all hours worked. That is particularly relevant for salaried staff. It is not unusual for salaried workers to work overtime,
