1/3/2024 0 Comments Review stopadAt present, employees can give a general consent to deductions to be made from wages for amounts owed by the employee to the employer. If by undertaking such secondary employment the employee’s performance with the employer is adversely affected then that could amount to genuine reasons based on reasonable grounds but employers will need to consider such issues very carefully before taking any action based on any such actions by employees.įinally, the Wages Protection Act 1983 will be amended in relation to deductions that can be made from employees’ wages. Those grounds include any risk of loss to the employer of knowledge or intellectual property, or the employer’s competitive reputation, or preventing a real and unmanageable conflict of interest. Employees will be free to decline such extra work unless they have an availability provision in their employment agreement, and they are provided with reasonable compensation for making themselves available for performing that work.Įmployers will also be prevented from restricting secondary employment for employees unless they have genuine reasons based on reasonable grounds to do so. If employers require employees to be available over and above the agreed hours set out in their employment agreement, employees must be reasonably compensated for that availability. Instead, any agreed hours must be specifically set out in the employment agreement. on call) outside their normal working hours without a genuine reason and without reasonable compensation being offered for that availability Įmployers cancelling a shift without providing reasonable notice or compensation to the employee for cancelling that shift Įmployers putting unreasonable restrictions on secondary employment of employees Įmployers making unreasonable deductions from employees’ wages. The following practices will also be prohibited:Įmployers expecting employees to be available (i.e. Unfair employment practices (including zero-hour contracts)Īfter last minute negotiations between the government and opposition parties, “zero-hour contracts” will no longer be allowed. This is because such breaches are intended to be treated seriously and are more likely to be based on disputes of fact and so require specific findings of fact to be made.Įmployers will need to ensure that they adhere to minimum employment standards and that their records are accurately and consistently maintained to a high level. There are also clearer and more onerous record keeping requirements in terms of wages, time, holidays and leave records, and a greater emphasis on ensuring record keeping requirements are met by businesses.Ĭlaims in relation to breaches of employment standards will be more readily referred straight to the Authority rather than to mediation. Fines of up to $100,000.00 or three times the financial gain for a company can be imposed in the most serious breach cases (such as where employees are “exploited”). There will be tougher sanctions imposed for serious breaches of minimum employment standards. Employers should be aware of the following: The changes to employment standards and to unfair employment practices will be of great interest to all employers. The most significant changes to parental leave are to extend parental leave payments to employees with non-standard working arrangements (such as casual workers), to extend the entitlements to a wider group than simply biological and formal adoptive parents, and to give greater flexibility to employees for unpaid parental leave.Įmployment Standards & Unfair Employment Practices To address issues such as “zero-hour contracts” and other unfair employment practices. To strengthen enforcement of employment standards and To extend paid parental leave to more workers and to increase the flexibility of the scheme
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