Employment Changes 2020
This year again, we see more changes and updates to our employment legislation in New Zealand. These changes impact businesses of all sizes in different ways and it is important to keep up to date with these Employment Law changes and ensure that you understand what they mean, how they impact you and what you may need to do to be prepared.
Again, we see the minimum wage increase but also the introduction of raising a personal grievance on a Triangular Employment relationship. This brings a lot of uncertainty to businesses especially in the labour hire, temp and contracting industry.
The team at Hello Monday are on hand to help you through the interpretation of these changes, what they mean and the impact on your business. If for any reason you need that extra support, we will be present to help you.
Personal Grievance process
- An employee can raise a personal grievance if they believe their employer has acted unfairly or unreasonably towards them.
- The Employment Relations Act 200 – Under section 103 of the Employment Relations Act 200, covers this.
- Employees have 90 days to raise a personal grievance complaint.
- Raising a personal grievance on a Triangular Employment relationship.
- The employment relations (triangular employment) amendment act passed on 26th June 2019 and will come into force in mid-2020.
- A triangular employment is a relationship between employees where the employer works for a third party. Currently, employees can only bring a personal grievance against their employer and the third party they currently work for cannot be added to the claim.
- Third parties that are doing work for an organisation or business can be added to the personal grievance claim, where the behaviour or actions of the third part contributed to the problem.
Payroll changes
- KiwiSaver Employee contributions now include options of 6% and 10%.
- Starting-out and Trainees: The starting-out and training minimum wage will increase from $13.20 to $14.16 an hour, being 80 percent of the adult minimum wage Under 16.
- There is no minimum wage for employees aged under 16 but all other employment rights and entitlements still apply.
- The government is committed to raising the minimum wage to $20.00 by April 2021.
- Minimum wage from 1 April will increase from $17.70 to $18.90. This is an extra $48 per week before tax for employees working 40 hours per week on the current minimum wage.
Paid Parental Leave
- Paid Parental Leave will have an increase to 6 weeks due 1 July 2020
- The maximum weekly rate of parental leave payments will increase from $564.38 per week to $585.80 per week.
Domestic Violence leave
If you, or a child in your care, are affected by domestic violence, you can ask your employer for paid domestic violence leave and flexible working arrangements.
It does not matter if the violence happened before you started with your current employer, or before the law changed on 1 April 2019.
If you meet the employment criteria, you can:
- Apply to take 10 days paid domestic violence leave each year.
- Ask for a short-term flexible working arrangement for up to 2 months.
Employees must inform their employers soon as possible. The employer has up to 10 working days to reply in writing to the employee request.
At Hello Monday we provide HR Compliance services and support help businesses across industries to document what you require to protect your business and interests and to meet your legislative employment obligations.
We work closely with business owners and their leadership teams to gain an understanding of their individual business requirements and tailor solutions suited to your business, industry and people structure.
What we do well
- Help you set your HR strategy and workforce planning.
- Provide HR Support and help for all things HR and people.
- External HR review and analysis to ensure that you are current.
- Build and develop leadership capability.
- Mitigate employment issues and risk from your business.
Services we provide
- Review and updating your existing HR systems and processes.
- Updating and reviewing your employment documents such as your people policies and procedures, employment agreements, employee handbooks etc.
- Set your people strategies, goals and KPIs.
- Help with manage disciplinaries, investigations and restructures.
- Leadership development and training.
- People planning and change management.
- Workforce planning and recruitment.
- Developing your HR Strategy for the year.
- Onboarding and induction.
- Renumeration and benefits.
- Outsourced Payroll Services.
- Outplacement/career transition services.
- Review of Health and Safety systems and processes.
If you need help right now with any of the services mentioned above or anything HR related then contact Hello Monday, now to discuss putting strong HR foundations in place for your business and people, where you can continue without unnecessary risks and focus on running your business.