News

The Select Committee has reported back on the Bill.  The Bill has its Second Reading on 18 October and if passed most of the Bill would come into force one month after Royal Assent.  At the current rate of progress, the Bill is expected to be passed before the end of the year, with the first FPA being in place in the first half of 2023. 

Helen White’s Employment Relations (Restraint of Trade) Amendment Bill was drawn from the ballot box on 22 September and is awaiting its first reading. If passed in its current form the Bill would sev...

Now that the traffic light system has been removed and other changes implemented, questions arise as to whether an employer can maintain a policy requiring staff to be fully vaccinated, wear masks, or...

In E Tū Incorporated v Carter Holt Harvey LVL Limited [[2022] NZEmpC 141; 15/08/22; Holden J] the Court found that CHH unlawfully required employees to take annual holidays during the 2020 lockdown.

The long-held view that an employer should not rely on a ‘heat of the moment’ resignation but allow the employee the opportunity to ‘cool off’ and reconsider their position, has been over-turned by a ...

Minor workplace grievances are increasingly building to an "explosion" point because employees aren't equipped to tackle them early on, and hybrid working only exacerbates the problem because professi...

In Australia, an employer has been ordered to pay a manager more than $2.25 million in compensation, penalties and costs after its CEO effectively destroyed her life. The Hawkesbury Race Club marketin...

Obviously it’s early days yet as the Bill has only had its first reading. Recently the Minister of Workplace Relations said he doesn’t expect the legislation to be passed much before the end of the year; and he doesn’t expect the first FPA to take effect before the end of 2023, or perhaps early in 2024. 

On 1 July 2022, the Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022 replaces the Protected Disclosures Act 2020. 

The process of establishing better rights for contractors has started.  A Tripartite Working Group comprising MBIE, CTU and Business NZ has recommended a set of policy changes to improve how regulator...

Announced without much fanfare on 1 April, the Living Wage effective from 1 September 2022 will be $23.65.