In the news this month there have been three significant cases arising out of the employment relationship, which have caught my eye. The first case in particular is a shining example of why we have employment law. The second case speaks to why we need safeguards in place to protect the rights of employees, to ensure they are being fairly remunerated, and the third case is a sad one in which an employee did not get to return home safely to his family.

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People in Mind once again sponsored the Cambridge Autumn Festival’s fabulous “Be the Book” Photography Competition.

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Serious Misconduct – Managing It Well

“You’re fired!” It’s the classic catchphrase of Donald Trump that turned abrupt dismissals into popular reality TV, but can an employer in 2018 really say this?

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Minimum wage rates increased from Sunday 1 April, and as an employer you must make sure that your team are being paid at least the minimum wage.

The new rates are:
Adult — $16.50 per hour
Starting-out — $13.20 per hour
Training — $13.20 per hour

Note: The starting-out and training minimum wages are set at 80% of the adult minimum wage. If you want an explanation on each of these different rates, you can refer to the minimum pay rules on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment NZ website or you can give us call.

If your staff are already being paid more than the minimum wage, there is nothing for you to do unless you have specific requirements outlined in your employment agreement that you must meet. If you haven’t reviewed remuneration for your team in a wee while, now is a good time.

If you need any help in this area, simply drop us a line or give us a call 07 823 3250.

At People in Mind, we love what we do. As a profession, HR is anything but vanilla; there’s no such thing as an “average” week. This month, we thought we’d take a wee departure from our usual style and tell you a little about what we actually do here.

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A client rang me recently with an interesting question. Could their employee take bereavement leave for their dog? The employee was genuinely grief-stricken and incapable of working. Was there anything the employer could do?

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On 25 January 2018, the Labour Government signalled changes to the law governing trial periods. The changes are yet to pass into law. In the meantime it is business as usual, so I want to run through how you can use the trial period for new employees, under the current legislation.

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In HR we encourage forward planning and documenting the agreed plans. Some might say I am slightly obsessive about this. But, quite simply, planning and documentation is good! With Christmas rolling around, the plan we should all be working on right now is our Leave Management Plan.

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Thinking you might have stepped into some weird universe where HR has turned into Marketing? Don’t worry – it’s just a short visit, but definitely worthwhile.

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While away on holiday I was sitting in a café one day and noticed something which has stuck with me. A very young person was delivering meals to a table. The scenario stuck in my mind as he just didn’t appear to fit that particular role. I don’t mean from a team fit perspective, but from a customer’s perspective.

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