Fatigue in the Workplace
A recent sentencing in the District Court comes after the death of a tractor driver in the North Island back in October 2016. At the time the worker died, he had just clocked a nearly 17 hour day harvesting on farm. At 2.45am on his way home he crashed the tractor and did not survive. In the fortnight leading up to the accident the worker had done nearly 200 hours.
Businesses must pay employees for pre-work meetings
There have been numerous headlines in the media lately regarding big businesses failing to pay their staff for attending pre work meetings.
The catalyst for this has been the recent NZ Employment Court decision where they ruled Smiths City Group must pay their employees for attending their pre work meetings.
Employer role increasing in Visa applications
The days where employers could leave it up to their migrant workers to obtain the appropriate visa from Immigration New Zealand (“INZ”) have ended. Consequences for employers who get it wrong includes losing the ability to hire migrant workers altogether. Below are some common issues we see.
Beware of Knee-Jerk Reactions
Around twenty years ago when I started doing jury trials I remember that I used to smoke in the Crown room over at the court.
At some point the building was then made smoke-free so I used to hang out the window and smoke. When my boss, told me that there were complaints about me hanging out the window and smoking, I kept doing it but lit incense. (I was pretty anti-authoritarian back then and it has just dawned on me incense burning probably breached fire regulations.)
Good Faith Obligations for Employers
When we act for an employee in a dispute we quite often hear the employer say that they have lost “trust and confidence” in that employee to carry out their job as required.
The opposite can be true, where an employee may say that they have “lost trust and confidence” in an employer to say, keep them safe in the workplace.
