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Employer Newsletter Mar 2023


Published 18 Mar 2023
This Issue

Roadside Drug Testing Deferred

A year on from Parliament passing the The Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Act 2022 it has just been announced that the intended start of random roadside drug testing of drivers this month will not be proceeding....full story

Employer Wins Restraint of Trade

An employee who resigned, stole the company confidential information and set up in competition gets a $50k fine from the Employment Relations Authority.
...full story

Daylight Savings End Sunday April 2nd 2023

Clocks go back
Daylight Saving ends on Sunday, 2nd April 2023 at 3.00am. Clocks are put back one hour to 2.00am.

If you have staff working at this time, they may work an additional hour of course and must be paid for that.

Minimum Wage Rate Increase

April 1 will see the increase to minimum wage rates again. $22.70 will be the new adult minimum gross hourly rate.

In the usual way, the starting out rate and training rates are 80% of the adult minimum rate being $18.16.

One thing we can offer to make it easier for Employers is to use our online bulk eSign facility to inform your affected staff of the change.

Easter Trading 2023

This year we have Easter Sunday being observed on Sunday, April 9th. This makes the public holidays of Good Friday and Easter Monday on Friday 7th and Monday 10th April respectively. April of course hosting ANZAC day later on the 25th also.

Easter Sunday is not a public holiday but is a restricted trading day as are Good Friday and Anzac Day until 1pm. So, if someone works on Easter Sunday, unless otherwise agreed it's paid at their normal rates, and no alternative holiday applies.

August 2016 saw the Shop Trading Hours Act 1990 amended. This gave local councils the power to have their own policies around restricted trading days and locations. For more information on your area and restrictions please see here:

www.employment.govt.nz/leave-and-holidays/public-holidays/restricted-shop-trading-days/local-council-easter-sunday-shop-trading-policies/

Worth noting that the amendment in 2016 also gives the unilateral right to employees to refuse to work on Easter Sunday.

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