Employment Law updating – let me count the ways
Legislation
As flagged in a previous post, on 1 April 2024 the Minimum Wage Order 2024 came into force (revoking the Minimum Wage Order 2023), and the Health and Safety at Work (Adventure Activities) Regulations 2016 were amended (by the Health and Safety at Work (Adventure Activities) Amendment Regulations 2023).
Elsewhere, the latest pending amendments and introduction/progress of relevant Bills have been recorded on the Pending and Proposed Employment Legislation Changes page. For example:
- Schedule 1B of the Employment Relations Act 2000 (Code of good faith for public health sector) will be amended on 30 June 2024 by the Pae Ora (Disestablishment of Māori Health Authority) Amendment Act 2024.
- The Repeal of Good Friday and Easter Sunday as Restricted Trading Days (Shop Trading and Sale of Alcohol) Amendment Bill 2024 was introduced on 11 April 2024.
Commentary
As usual, annotated commentary (i.e. under legislative sections) has been updated. This includes commentary on recent cases, such as:
- E Tū Inc v New Zealand Steel Ltd [2024] NZEmpC 29 (interpretation principles where disputes re employment agreements): see [ER129.09(2)].
- MAH Enterprises (Fiji) Ltd v Labour Inspector [2024] NZEmpC 45 (withdrawal of solicitor/counsel): see [EC6.10].
- Mount Cook Airline Ltd v E Tū Inc [2024] NZCA 19 (payment of minimum wages): see [MW6.02(4)].
Discursive (stand-alone) commentary has been added at:
- [CL2.03(12)] Employment Relations (Restraint of Trade) Amendment Bill 2022
A further type of authored commentary, namely the glossary of terms at Words, Phrases and Concepts in Employment Law, has also been updated and includes a new entry:
- Bullying: see [WPC2].
Editorials
Employment Law contains a collection of editorials from past and present authors. The latest contribution is from Suzanne Innes-Kent:
- [ED28] Fear Before Fair: The Slow Rise and Sudden Fall of New Zealand’s Fair Pay Agreements Legislation
(Sadly, Suzanne is retiring from the author team, and a replacement author will be announced shortly. Thank you so much Suzanne for all your reliable, insightful manuscript – and for all the laughs during author–editor communications!)
For more on the latest updating in Employment Law, see Employment Law — What’s New.
Kevin Leary is a Senior Legal Editor in the New Zealand Analytical Law team at Thomson Reuters. He has more than 20 years' experience as an editor of bound books, looseleafs, precedents and their digital equivalents.