• Employment Relations Act 2000
• Equal Pay Act 1972
• Holidays Act 2003
• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015
• Human Rights Act 1993
• Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation & Compensation Act 2001
• Minimum Wage Act 1983
• Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987
• Privacy Act 2020
• Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022
• Wages Protection Act 1983
• Crimes Act 1961

See http://www.legislation.govt.nz/ for more information.

Good faith underpins all employment relationships and is intended to ensure employees and employers treat each other fairly using common sense. Good faith includes the following three elements:

• Parties must not act in a misleading or deceptive way.
• Parties must be responsive and communicative.
• Before making a decision that may result in employees losing their job, the employer must give the affected employees sufficient information to be able to understand the proposal and then give them a proper opportunity to comment.

A trial period of up to 90 days can be applied to a new employee. An employee cannot be on a trial period if they have worked for that employer before.

For a trial period to be valid, the correct wording must be included in the employment agreement, and it must be signed before the first day of employment. A trial period is not a free pass to being an unreasonable employer. The provision will allow you to dismiss an employee within the trial period, without following a full dismissal process and without the employee being able to bring a personal grievance or other legal proceedings about their dismissal, however employees can still bring other kinds of personal grievances (for example, allegations of discrimination or harassment).

If the employer does not give the employee notice by the end of the trial period, then they are no longer on trial and their employment will continue.

Trial periods cannot be used for migrants being employed on an Accredited Employer Work Visa.

It is best practice to include wording in the employment agreement like, "This agreement may be varied by agreement in writing signed by both parties". Even if there is no clause, it is best practice to detail the change in writing and get the employee's signature to confirm their agreement with the change. If the variation is due to a change in legislation, it might be more appropriate to send a letter/email and not require it to be signed and returned.

If an employee refuses to sign a variation, there may be grounds to enter into a formal process if your request is fair and reasonable e.g. a reduction in hours because they have been consistently absent for many months.

New and existing employees wishing to change their tax code must complete an IR330. It will state:

• The tax code to use
• The rate of tax to take out of their wage and pay to Inland Revenue (called PAYE. PAYE includes the ACC earners’ levy to cover the cost of non-work injuries)

Reimbursing allowances

• Generally non-taxable
• Reimbursing the employee for expenditure incurred in connection with (i.e. has a receipt) employment e.g. wet weather gear, work-related travel

Benefit allowances

• Generally taxable
• To compensate the employee for conditions of their service e.g. dirty work, remote working, use of private motor vehicles

ESCT is deductible from employer contributions to superannuation schemes, including contributions to KiwiSaver.

Income plus superannuation contributions rates

• $0 to $18,720 – 10.5%
• $18,721 to $64,200 – 17.5%
• $64,201 to $93,720 – 30%
• $93,721 to $216,000 – 33%
• Over $216,001 – 39%

Businesses can have an “annual closedown” for their whole business or a part of it. They must give their employees at least 14 days’ notice.

Employees are required to use their annual holidays (“annual leave”) to cover the closedown period. If the employee does not have enough annual leave, the employer will consult with the employee on how to manage the time off. This may include unpaid leave or leave in advance.

New employees who have not yet completed 12 months must be paid their holiday pay of 8% of their total earnings up to the closedown start date, minus annual leave they’ve taken in advance.