Employment Agreements - New requirements from 1 July
As part of the recent amendments to the Employment Relations Act 2000, employers must now (from 1 July 2011) keep a signed copy of the employment agreement or the current terms and conditions of employment for all employees. This includes casual and fixed-term employees.
This requirement applies regardless of the employee’s start date and also applies to any subsequent variations to an employee’s terms and conditions. Employees also have the right to request a copy of their individual employment agreement or terms and conditions at any time and their employer must provide the employee with a copy as soon as is reasonably practicable.
From 1 April 2011, employers became liable to increased penalties imposed by the Employment Relations Authority if proceedings are bought by a Labour Inspector for any breach of the requirements in relation to employment agreements. Before any such action is brought, an employer must be given notice of the breach and seven days in which to remedy it. Maximum penalties for a failure to comply with the requirements are now $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for companies.
Advice
• Ensure now there exists a signed employment agreement for all employees
• Keep such agreements in a safe place
• Don’t start new employees without having a signed employment agreement in place.
Save the bytes
In the next few months we’re looking to make a small change to the way we store Authorisation Report Distributions (formerly known as trial run reports) in DataPay.
We’re currently storing them indefinitely which mean they take up a lot of space – and that space is ever expanding.
The Authorisation Reports are used to confirm that all entries have been entered correctly and accurately within a pay run. Once a pay run has been authorised, finalised and closed these reports are of limited use. We intend to reduce the time that we store these reports to 2 months, after which time they will be deleted. Final reports will continue to be stored forever at this point.
We’ll be sending a letter to all our DataPay users letting you know from what date this change is going to occur. It’s a small change, so there’s no need to be concerned and it will have no impact on your day to day use of DataPay.
TUANZ Local & Central Government Services Award
Winner: Datacom New
For: NZPolice SNAP Project
Judges’ Comments: Datacom and New Zealand Police protect the public from the trade in stolen property and helps overcome the apathy among the public. This is proactive policing starting with children and expanding into the wider community.
About SNAP: SNAP is a website that lets you record the serial numbers and unique identifiers of your assets on a secure website. If any property is then lost or stolen in the future, you can then access the website to retrieve the correct information to include in a report to the Police and to your insurance company. Along with recording serial numbers associated with your high-value assets, you can also associate a description, colour, make/model, and photograph of the item.
The secure website was designed, built and hosted by Datacom and is run by the NZ Police. Only you have access to the information on the secure website via your unique logon and password.
Help stop the illegal trade of stolen property and protect your assets on www.snap.org.nz
HR Quarterly Index
The HR Quarterly Index provides a summary of employment confidence in the business sector from the HR Coach Research Institute for
Business confidence overall is positive in
Positive growth in jobs coupled with the upcoming Rugby World Cup in September, is set to create opportunities in retail, hospitality and tourism and seems to be boosting the economic outlook. It is also being viewed as an opportunity to showcase business capability and talent in business. The profit expectations of businesses also reflect this.
The improved employment market may put pressure on wage rises as employees look for higher wages. Businesses will need to manage this carefully over the coming months and focus on broader retention strategies for key people.
Growth in jobs has occurred in part-time roles at a greater rate than full time roles. Given the change in the employment market, recruitment of full time roles may grow in line with business confidence.
The reconstruction of