With the labour market in Canterbury approaching full employment, many businesses are reporting difficulties finding talented staff. Increasingly we find clients are keen to try different methods, particularly social media recruiting tools (such as Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook), to reach potential hires.
You can read June 2014 Essential Update here
The very first Small Business Sector Report has been released by Minister Steven Joyce, revealing valuable information on the sector which the Minister describes as the "backbone of the New Zealand economy".
Yet another case has highlighted the importance of getting the detail of your 90-day trial clause right in Employment Agreements. In this case, the Authority concluded the 90-day trial clause in the Employment Agreement could not be relied upon claim because it was incorrectly drafted. The clause referred to a trial period of three months rather than a “period not exceeding 90 days” as specified in the legislation. It also didn’t refer to the protections in the legislation. So even though the employer was complying with the understanding, they were in the wrong! $5,000 and three months pay can be substantial.
The CPI figures for the year to 30 June 2014 have just been released at 1.6%, which is very consistent with inflationary pressures in the preceding 6 months. Fortunately a strong NZ$ has offset the impact of increasing housing and household utility costs. My sense, though, is that in Christchurch the housing costs will have increased rather more than elsewhere so the pressure on local wages will remain higher than inflation.
The Court of Appeal has recently addressed this issue because an employee claimed the employer should have dealt with alleged lying as a separate disciplinary matter. The Court disagreed. So if you have an employee who seems to be lying in their defence of a disciplinary matter, you need to:
Ashburton : August, 6th, 7th, 13th, 20th and 21st
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