Rights and responsibilities
Employers must make sure their employees are receiving their employment rights, including following a fair process for any issues of misconduct, employee performance and redundancy.
Learn more about rights and responsibilities
Types of workers
Employee or contractor? Fixed-term or permanent? Apprentice, trainee, or volunteer? Your business could have many types of workers. Different rules apply to each.
Learn more about types of workers
Hiring processes
Having good hiring processes can help make things easier in the long run. When hiring someone, you need to act fairly throughout the process. Make sure you do not unlawfully discriminate against people based on sex, age, race, or other illegal grounds.
Get tips on hiring
The ins and outs of employment agreements
You must have an employment agreement, and it’s a great foundation for an employment relationship. As an employer, you must keep a signed, current copy of the employment agreement, or the current terms and conditions of employment that are available to the employee on request.
Get your employment agreement right
Keep records to show you are following the rules
Employers must keep complete and accurate records of wages, time, leave and other details. The Employment Court, the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and the Labour Inspectorate take this seriously.
Employers that don’t keep complete and accurate records, may be subject to either:
• infringement fees from the Labour Inspectorate, or
• penalties from the ERA or Employment Court.
The ERA recently fined a company and its banned director $48,000 for breaching employment standards, including not keeping accurate records. Read the news item
Complying with record keeping rules
