Risk and Reward
Changes to both the Holidays Act and the Employment Relations Act will come into force on 1 April 2011. These changes are intended to reduce compliance costs, increase business confidence in recruiting new staff as well as speed up the resolution of workplace disputes. The main changes include:
- Employees will be able to cash in one week of their four weeks’ leave
- Employees who have irregular working hours and pay will now have their holiday, sick and bereavement leave calculated on an average daily pay basis
- Employers and employees will be able to agree to transfer taking a public holiday to another working day
- The minimum wage will increase from $12.75 to $13.00 from 1 April, while the training and new entrants’ minimum wage will rise from $10.20 to $10.40, effective as of the same date
- The 90-day trial period is being extended to all employers (currently limited to those with less than 20 employees). From 1 April employers and employees can enter into an employment agreement which provides for a trial period of 90 days or less. During the trial period the employer can dismiss the employee without risking a personal grievance
- Employers will have to keep detailed personal files for each employee. These files must contain signed copies of employment agreements, other terms and conditions, handbooks, as well as any intended agreements (even where these have not been agreed to by the employee). These documents must be available to employees on request. Employers have until 1 July to get their files up to the new standard. We estimate that a good number of our clients will have some work to do here! Keep an eye out for our upcoming Wilco Alert on this very subject. We’ll be providing you with an Employee Personal File Checklist, to help you meet the new standards
- Union representatives will need an employer’s permission to enter the workplace
- Employers will be able to communicate with employees during collective bargainin
- Minimum requirements establishing a fair and reasonable dismissal process will be set out in the Act and employers will have a much clearer process to follow. This is great news for our employer clients, who can be fearful of dismissal processes being scrutinised for minor defects
