A quick update for those interested in the potential changes to New Zealand’s employment laws.
Here is a succinct summary of the proposed changes announced by the Prime Minister:
1. Extending 90 day trial period to all workplaces.
2. Employers will be able to communicate directly with workers during collective bargaining.
3. Union access will require employer consent, which ‘cannot be unreasonably withheld’.
4. Reduced focus on procedural fairness in personal grievance cases. The Government will ‘ensure that an employer’s processes are not the subject of pedantic scrutiny’.
5. The Employment Court will have less ability to question the reason for dismissal as the test is changed from what a reasonable employer ‘would’ do, to ‘could’ do.
6. Removing reinstatement as the primary remedy in dismissal cases.
7. The Employment Relations Authority will be able to ‘filter out vexatious or frivolous claims at an early stage’.
8. There will be penalties for delaying behaviour at the Authority.
9. Up to one week’s annual holidays can be traded for cash.
10. For those workers whose hours of work and pay are irregular, their payment for sick leave, bereavement leave, public holidays and alternative holidays will be calculated by averaging gross earnings for the preceding 52 weeks or whatever lesser period the employee has been with that employer.
11. Workers can agree to transfer the observance of public holidays to another (identified) working day.
12. Employers will be able to ‘ask for proof of sickness or injury within three consecutive days of an employee taking sick leave, but will have to cover the employee’s reasonable costs in obtaining proof’.
13. The maximum penalties for non-compliance with the Holidays Act will double from $5,000 to $10,000 if the employer is an individual, and from $10,000 to $20,000 if the employer is a company or other body corporate.
14. Early mediation services without representation, prior to any formal mediation.
15. The Government intends to make some other changes ‘to improve the way the Employment Relations Authority works, including moving to a more judicial mode of operation, with the right to cross-examine witnesses’.
16. A code of ethics for employment advocates.
17. Formal definition of the role of Labour Inspector.
18. Allowing Labour Inspectors to issue improvement notices.
Also, click here to have a look at the Department of Labour’s evaluation of the first year of operation of the 90 day trial period.
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