Employers are warned not to use the economic downturn as a cover to illegally dismiss staff.

Employment Law Help, a leading Auckland employment relations firm, today announced its research findings that an increasing number of employees are being dismissed or disadvantaged under the guise of harsh economic conditions, when that is not the real reason for their treatment.

Employment Law Help has found increasing numbers of disturbing cases:

·         Employees accused of incompetence if they query long and unpaid overtime hours.

·         Redundancy processes being used to hide the illegal dismissal of employees for other reasons.

·         Employees with excellent work records, suddenly being deemed to have a serious performance problem after the appointment of a new manager. 

·         Harassment type micromanagement being used to ‘encourage’ employees to resign.

Employment Law Help says that the message is clear: employers need to treat employees with respect and fairness. Getting employment law wrong can prove costly for the employer and devastating for the employee.

Burnout and stress are common in New Zealand workplaces. Often people are told they should be grateful to have a job, and they feel forced to work longer and longer hours to pay the bills. 

If this is you - stop!

Some work stress in inevitable, and there will be times when it may be more than other times. That’s normal. But when the demands become too great, or they go on for too long, you need to stop and consider if you should be putting up with that level of stress. Your family would rather have you alive and not stressed to the max, than dead from a heart attack, or severely depressed, as a result of trying to cope with an impossible situation. It’s just not worth it.

If workplace stress is getting too much, your employer has an obligation to you to help, and if the situation just won’t get better then a exit negotiation and going to a better job is usually the best alternative.

For an interesting article on the effects of workplace stress click here:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10808621

An interesting case is in the news this morning. A Southland woman took her case to the Employment Relations Authority claiming that she had to work too much overtime. She lost because the employer was able to show that the employee had emailed friends from work saying she had done "bugger all work all day" and was "just f...ing around" because her boss was away. 

The employee had an employment agreement that required her to work any additional hours for no extra pay. Many salaried employees have that kind of clause in their agreements, but this doesn’t mean that they can be required to work unreasonable overtime (even though this is what the clause implies). If the overtime is too much, too regular, or making the employee stressed or unwell, then this must be addressed by the employer. Requiring too much overtime may mean that the employee has good grounds for an exit negotiation, or to renegotiate their work arrangements with their current employer, or a good personal grievance claim.

To get to the Employment Relations Authority, the Southland woman would probably have had to go through mediation and other negotiations first. The lessons from the case? Don’t keep on going and going with a weak case, and make sure your facts stack up. Oh – and be careful what you say in work emails.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/work-emails-expose-slacking-attitude-4903849?

The future of 500 New Zealand engineering jobs is at risk. This grim news is a reminder of the fact that most Kiwi employees have no entitlement to any redundancy pay if they are made redundant. The best time to negotiate a redundancy enablement is when you are offered a job and the employment agreement is entered in to. If you need help with negotiating terms and conditions of employment, talk to us – we’re experts in doing so in a way that won’t get the employer’s back up.

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/7001796/180-Wellington-jobs-at-risk

Ryman Healthcare has reported record profits while many of their employees care for the elderly and vulnerable for the measly rate of $14 an hour. Not only that, but the income to fuel those profits comes from public funds and that of their vulnerable patients. 

People don’t only go to work because of the money. But the money that employees get paid can be a measure of the regard that the employer has for them. In this case, it’s simply not good enough. Our most vulnerable employees deserve better.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/6995353/Ryman-profit-fuels-row-on-aged-care-pay