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,
Imagine this. One of your employees tells you that another employee has been stealing from the petty cash. Now, you are a fair and reasonable employer. Though you feel this employee is telling the truth, you won’t jump to any conclusions. You will treat it as an allegation and ask the
It is generally well known that you must have a good reason to dismiss an employee under New Zealand law. The sorts of good reasons you may be familiar with include: that the employee’s position is redundant; that the employee has misbehaved; or that the employee’s performance is not up to
Most employers will tolerate an employee showing up late for work once in a while. We’ve all had a bus arrive late, found ourselves stuck in bad traffic, or had a sick child that needed urgent care. In those cases, you’d expect your employee to get in touch, to let
You’re not a machine. You need breaks, time to recharge. You need to step away from the tasks you’ve been doing at times if you are to be productive. If you don’t, exhaustion can set in. We all know this, and the law recognises this need too. That’s why all
Not everyone who works in your business is necessarily your employee. Some directors/owners choose to work in the business without getting a salary or fee. Sometimes you hire contractors to perform work for you. And in some cases, you’ll have a person volunteer their time to work for you. They
Before you accept that handsome offer of new employment, pause for a moment. How will you resign from your current job? You may not think this matters too much. You’ll just resign, work out your notice, move to the next thing. The transition will be easy. Right? Maybe. But handing
