The 1st April this year sees some significant changes to the management of leave:

An employee can request that you cash-up all or part of one week of the four week leave entitlement.  The employee must have worked for you for over 12 months to qualify as they can only cash-up leave that has become due.  An employer can opt out of the cash-up by having a company policy adn can chose to have different policies for different parts of the business.

Public holidays can now be moved by negotiation between the employer and employee.  Again if the employer does not want to do this they can opt out with a written policy.


SURVIVING THE EARTHQUAKE!

If you are an employer who is affected by the earthquake and are unable to provide work for either some or all of your employees then there are some things you need to know.

Your first consideration is your company’s individual or collective agreement.  If this agreement covers such events as business interruption then you may well be covered and should follow the process outlined in these agreements.  Some agreements guarantee a minimum number of hours in which case you may have to pay those staff.  If your agreement has no minimum hours then you have a clearer path.  In any event, you must make the decision in consultation with your staff.

It is important that you communicate with your employees and let them know the state of the situation, the likely time frame in which there will be no work and any options they may have.  If staff have annual leave owing or accrued you could offer for them to take paid holiday while you are unable to provide work.  You cannot enforce this.  An employee who is injured or needs to look after dependents may also be eligible for sick leave during this time. 

You should take time to consider other options such as the ability for staff to work from home and under what circumstances this may work.  Are there options for staff to re-locate temporarily to other towns or offices?  If so how what will you pay for and what does this mean for them. 

Provide your staff with support.  It may be that any employees already getting family assistance will be able to have an increase in payments for the period of no work. 

For those employers with more than 20 staff, the Civil Defence Payments may be able to assist.  Work and Income can provide information.

Any natural disaster like this has an enormous impact on people.  Be prepared to be flexible and supportive of any employees who may need extra time off to rebuild their lives. 

90 Day Trial Period

From 1st April, all employers can take advantage of a trial period in their employment agreements.  it only applies to new staff employed after 1st April 2011.  Firstly let me say that this is NOT the same as the probationary period.  Some simple rules apply:

A written trial period clause must be in the employment agreement.
The agreement must be signed before the employee starts
Any clause must state the period of trial and that the employee cannot take a grievance for unjustified dismissal if terminated during the period of the clause.

Wording is very important here.  The 90 days is calendar days and not three months.  The notice period must be the same as in the termination clause of the agreement but as long as you give the notice during the trial 90 days it does not matter if the notice period takes you over the 90 days.  I recommend you check the wording of your trial period clause before inserting it in your agreement.  Need to know more? 

Call 0508 HRHELP