I have not contributed much to the public debate on vaccination and what that means in the employment context. In part that is because the topic has been so well covered, and in other part that is because this period has been about dealing with unique contexts and sets of facts that don’t lend themselves …
No Jab / No Job – the intersection between Public Good and Private Rights Read More »
Very many employment agreements contain provisions in restraint of trade. These are contractual terms which limit an employee’s freedom to do certain things once the employment relationship has ended. Restraints of trade can take any number of forms, but frequently they prevent employees working for a competitor, working in the same industry, or soliciting clients. …
Please Stop Saying Restraints of Trade are Unenforceable! Read More »
It’s been a long time since I posted a new thought on this blog. Like many of you I’ve been managing the terror, and the overwhelm, and the calm, and the extra work, and the laziness and the backlog of lockdown. To say it has been an emotional rollercoaster would be an understatement and, although …
It seems quaint now, but in 2008, employment lawyers were worried about the work-place implications of Bird Flu. We hurried to update employment agreements to include some sort of ‘act of god’ provision that determined how an employment relationship would respond in various circumstances. Ironically, in the decade that followed, many of those were removed …
The Employment Relations Act (Act) recognises a number of personal grievances – categories of claims an employee can bring against an employer. By far the most common is a personal grievance alleging unjustified dismissal. There are another eight specific types (discrimination, harassment, duress in relation to union membership and breaches of specific legislative provisions), and …
It seems in recent years, we have, in a series of waves, realised how tricky the Holidays Act is to interpret and apply. We now know many employers, including many government departments, have historically got it quite wrong. In my practice now more than ever I am having to examine and assess holiday payments that …
Seems a long time ago that I blogged about the huge bulk of information that an employer might gather about an employee, and the issues that both parties need to be aware of in dealing with such information. I promised to write some more about what an employer could do with that information. In my …
The Privacy Act could be one of the most misunderstood statutes, quoted regularly by people from all walks of life, but frequently quite wrongly. Some, it seems, are reluctant to do anything for fear of Privacy Act consequences, while others have startlingly little appreciation of the limits it might impose on activities. The Privacy Act …
In recent times, when employers have been able to use trial periods to swiftly address problems with new employees, old-fashioned probationary periods have fallen out of vogue. However, as from today employers of 20 or more people can not use trial periods, so the time has come to dust off your employment agreement and see …
On probation – do you have a good probationary period? Read More »
One of the major challenges of our legal system is that there is almost always a cost associated with achieving recognition of your legal rights. Usually, much of that cost can not be recovered once your claim has been resolved. You may have followed the recent story about a woman who was ordered to pay …
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