New Zealand

The unemployment rate increased to 6.0 percent in the September 2015 quarter (up from 5.9 percent). This is the first quarterly fall in employment in the last three years.

A recent Human Rights Review Tribunal case adds to a growing number of examples of employment issues under review in this jurisdiction, resulting in substantially higher awards to employees than in the employment courts. In McClelland v Schindler Lifts NZ Ltd [2015] NZHRRT 45, an employee was dismissed where the employer held a mistaken belief […]

Median weekly income in NZ increased by 4.3% in the June 2015 quarter compared to one year ago. Hourly earnings have increased 3.8 %, which is the largest increase NZ has experienced in the last six years. These figures can be compared with New Zealand’s low inflation, which has remained under 1% for the last […]

Regulations for worker engagement, participation and representation are under consideration by the Government. These regulations will outline procedural requirements that apply when workplaces have health and safety representatives or committees. These include: All large businesses (regardless of risk) will have to have a health and safety representative if an employee asks for one, and must […]

There has been a stern reminder from the courts in the Employment jurisdiction for proper focus on issues being argued and tight control on the escalation of costs following a company being ordered to pay over 200,000NZD for the costs incurred by an employee it dismissed and who subsequently challenged the company’s decision (Rodkiss v […]

Statistics New Zealand has corrected the consumers price index (CPI) figures for the March and June 2015 quarters. The changes result from a one-off processing error recently discovered. As a result, the quarterly CPI change in the March 2015 quarter moves to -0.2 percent (instead of -0.3 percent). The quarterly June CPI movement remains at […]

New Health and Safety legislation has been passed into law. The new law will be called the Health and Safety at Work Act and comes into force on 4 April 2016. It intends to bring about major change to the current health and safety regime and the health and safety culture of New Zealand businesses. […]

Higher awards to successful claimants can be expected following commentary in the Employment Court that compensation awards have not kept pace with inflation and that they should be set higher than they have been: (Hall v Dionex Pty Ltd [2015] NZEmpC 29; Campbell v The Commissioner of Salford School [2015] NZEmpC 122).

New Zealanders’ confidence in the state of the labour market has decreased, citing low wage growth as the primary concern. This data is measured by the Westpac McDermott Miller employment confidence index, which fell 5.7 points to 102.8 in the June quarter, the lowest in two years.

The Health and Safety Reform Bill, due for enactment in April 2015 has been delayed again. One issue causing the delay is the Government’s consideration of potential corporate manslaughter provisions. The Bill is now expected to come into force early 2016.