‘Take Advice’ on Employment Law Situations The interests of employees and employers are sometimes not aligned. This misalignment is most apparent when an employer is considering terminating an employee’s employment. One step a fair employer will take prior to dismissal is to remind the employee of their right to take legal advice. But what happens…read more >

Redundancy is complicated, not a quick fix.  How an employer chooses to run its business – the structure – can be complicated. When an employer decides to change how it does things and the employment of staff could be affected as a result, a redundancy situation might arise.  The case of Caddy v Vice Chancellor, University of Auckland shows just how involved the redundancy process…read more >

What is ‘fair and reasonable’ under s 103A. If you’re in the employment sphere, or have ever had an employment dispute, no doubt you will have heard the words “fair and reasonable” bandied about a fair bit. But what does this really mean? This is a reference to S103A of the Employment Relations Act, which…read more >

Working while on annual leave: Are you really on holiday?   Technology has changed the relationship many employees have with their work. Instead of work being left at the office, emails and phone calls can follow us anywhere- even on holiday. This raises the question, if an employee continues responding to emails while on leave, are they on holiday or are they at work?  In Wanaka Pharmacy Ltd…read more >

When the work conversation turns pear shaped Concrete Structures NZ Limited v Rottier  Mr Rottier signed a new contract with his employer and started work around 10:30am on 6 May 2019 – a few hours later his employment was over.  In summary, while working Mr Rottier’s Manager (Mr Henderson) approached Mr Rottier and accused him of letting subcontractors on site without signing in – he denied this, and was accused…read more >

Interim reinstatement: Do colleagues’ opinions matter? In a previous blog post, we have discussed interim reinstatement and the four-stage test that must be used in determining whether it will be granted. To recap, the four stages are:  Does the applicant have an arguable case for unjustified dismissal?  Does the applicant have an arguable case for reinstatement…read more >

 Understanding Sick Leave How many days of sick leave have I got?  Parliament has recently increased sick leave entitlements for employees to from 5 to 10 days’ per year. This means that from 25 July 2021, all employees – regardless of whether they are full-time or part-time – will be entitled to 10 days’ sick leave (since there is no provision to pro-rata this amount down for part-time…read more >

Do I need to be an employee to receive parental leave payments?  The short answer to the question ‘do I need to be an employee to receive parental leave payments?’ is yes. However while most consider an employee as someone currently working for an employer, the legislation governing parental leave payments (the Parental leave and Employment Protection Act 1987, the “Act”) has an extended…read more >

Is it really “off the record” or “without prejudice”? Conversations on a without prejudice basis are a useful tool in employment disputes. They allow parties to discuss resolution of their dispute frankly, safe in the knowledge that communications for this purpose are confidential and legally “off the record”. It is not uncommon for employees and…read more >

Lifting the corporate veil in employment law Since the 1897 decision of the House of Lords in Salomon v A Salomon and Co Ltd it has been established that a company is a separate legal person separate from its shareholders and directors – if a company owes an employee money and cannot pay, the law…read more >