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Written by Glenn Finnigan PARTNER on September 28th, 2021.
Now that New Zealand has accelerated its rollout of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, employers are turning their minds to whether they can ask their employees about their vaccination status and potentially, whether they can mandate for compulsory vaccinations within their workforce. This article examines some of these complex issues.
Written by David Alizade PARTNER; Darryl King PARTNER; Kelly Seabourne PARTNER; Stephanie Aquilina-Little, SENIOR LAWYER on August 30th, 2021.
A tenant’s ability to renew its lease for a further term is an important aspect of the bargain a landlord and tenant strike for the lease of a commercial property. However things can go awry when the parties don’t renew their lease at renewal time. The Property Law Act 2007 (PLA) gives a tenant the ability to go to Court for an order renewing its lease if its landlord refuses to renew it. This can be a saviour for a tenant but it means that a landlord needs to tread carefully if it wants to end a lease that has not been renewed.
Written by David Alizade PARTNER; Darryl King PARTNER on August 30th, 2021.
The Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2021 (Amendment Act) was passed on 24 May 2021 and introduces a number of key changes to the Overseas Investment Act 2005 (Act).
Written by David Alizade PARTNER on August 30th, 2021.
The Privacy Act 2020 (Act) is now more than six months old. Under the Act, organisations must report serious privacy breaches to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) – predictably, this has resulted in a large increase in the number of privacy breaches being reported. This update runs through the types of breaches that have been reported so far, and new guidance issued by the OPC in relation to breach reporting.
Written by Glenn Finnigan, PARTNER on August 2nd, 2021.
As from 24 July 2021 employees’ minimum entitlement to sick leave under the Holidays Act 2003 increases from 5 to 10 days per annum. Employees are entitled to the extra five days at their next entitlement date.
Written by Glenn Finnigan, PARTNER on May 7th, 2021.
New Zealand employers still continue to face challenging issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the focus for employers in 2020 was coping with lockdowns and changing Alert levels, the vaccination rollout in New Zealand has created a new set of nuanced issues for employers to grapple with.
Written by David Alizade PARTNER; Darryl King PARTNER on April 7th, 2021.
Following the end of the two-year transition period on 8 April 2021, it is now a criminal offence to intentionally engage in conduct in breach of the cartel laws in the Commerce Act 1986. The consequences for breach are severe - jail time and/or large fines.
Written by David Alizade PARTNER; Darryl King PARTNER on November 20th, 2020.
The Privacy Act 2020 (Act) comes into force on 1 December 2020. This warrant of fitness is designed to help you assess how well placed your franchise is to comply with the Act, and what changes you and your franchisees might need to make.
Written by David Alizade PARTNER; Darryl King PARTNER on November 19th, 2020.
The Privacy Act 2020 (Act) comes into force on 1 December 2020. This warrant of fitness is designed to help you assess how well placed you are to comply with the Act, and what changes you might need to make.
Written by David Alizade PARTNER on November 17th, 2020.
The Privacy Act 1993 has governed information privacy in New Zealand for 27 years. On 1 December, it will be replaced with the Privacy Act 2020 (Act). The Act uses the same principle based approach as its predecessor but includes new obligations for agencies and enforcement powers for the Privacy Commissioner, to provide greater protection for personal information in the digital age. The Act controls how “agencies” collect, use, disclose, store and give access to “personal information”. “Personal information” is information about identifiable, living people.
Written by Glenn Finnigan, PARTNER on November 16th, 2020.
A recent WorkSafe New Zealand sentencing decision highlights the high cost of mismanaging health and safety when having work done.
Written by David Alizade PARTNER on October 23rd, 2020.
Ahead of the introduction of the Privacy Act 2020 (Act) on 1 December, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) has this week launched its “NotifyUs” tool. The tool is designed to assist organisations with one of the key changes under the Act – the requirement to notify the OPC of certain data breaches. This fact sheet gives an overview of the new breach reporting requirements and how you can prepare for them.
Written by Glenn Finnigan, PARTNER on October 8th, 2020.
Workplace relations policy often becomes a political football around election time with parties towards the “left” of the political spectrum ordinarily promoting enhanced workers rights vs. the more “right” leaning parties being more concerned with business interests. With advance voting now having opened, we examine some of the parties’ plans for reforming the employment laws.
Written by Glenn Finnigan, PARTNER on September 22nd, 2020.
The management of drugs and alcohol in workplaces is not only an important health and safety issue for industry sectors such as construction and forestry, but is important for all workplaces.
Written by Glenn Finnigan, PARTNER on August 26th, 2020.
The aftermath to the first COVID-19 lockdown in April has seen a number of redundancy cases being taken to the Employment Relations Authority. The decisions on these cases are beginning to be released and the overarching theme to date is that the existence of a pandemic such as COVID-19 will not excuse an employer from adhering to their core obligations when dealing with potential redundancies.
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