There are minimum legal requirements for pay, holidays, breaks and workplace safety that you need to know. Keeping good records of time worked, pay, leave, training and accidents is essential to getting the basics right.
This section takes you through the steps of:
Pay
To ensure that you are paying people correctly you need to pay at least the relevant minimum wage and check that holidays and other leave are calculated properly. Keeping up-to-date, accurate records is an essential part of paying employees correctly.
What you must do
-
You must pay employees the amount that is set out in their employment agreement. This must be at least the applicable minimum wage rate. See the fact sheet on minimum wage for the current wage rates.
-
The adult minimum wage applies to all employees aged 16 and over who are not new entrants or trainees.
-
The new entrants minimum wage applies to new employees who are 16 or 17 until they have completed 200 hours or three months of employment (whichever is shorter) with you or another employer since turning 16. However, you must pay them at least the adult minimum wage if you require them to supervise or train others.
-
The training minimum wageapplies to employees aged 16 and over who are doing recognised industry training involving at least 60 credits a year.
-
If you employ a person with a disability, then you may want to apply for an exemption permit from minimum wage rates.
-
Keep good records to avoid disputes and get your wage and leave calculations right.
-
If employees are doing the same job and have similar skills and responsibilities you’re not allowed to pay one employee less than the other because of their race, national or ethnic origin, sex or sexual orientation, marital or family status, age, religious belief or political opinion, or disability.
-
Tell new employees about the KiwiSaver scheme and make KiwiSaver contributions to Inland Revenue.
-
Pay for sick or bereavement leave days at the rate employees would usually be paid on that day. This is known as relevant daily pay. See Sick Leave or Bereavement Leave for more information.
-
You can only make pay deductions if your employee has agreed to them in writing or they are required by law (such as income tax or child support payments).
-
All holiday pay due to an employee should be paid to them at the time they leave the job. See the fact sheet on calculation of final pay.
-
For more information on pay for public holidays see Paying Public Holidays Correctly.
-
For more information on pay for annual holidays see Calculating Annual Holiday Pay.
What you could do
Holidays and leave
Employees may be eligible for:
Eligibility depends on an employee’s length of service, normal working pattern and situations specific to the type of leave. This section will help you decide who can take which type of leave and how they should get paid for it.
Breaks
Employees need opportunities to rest during the day. Breaks promote productivity and prevent the build up of fatigue. If tiredness is a danger to your employees, for example to those operating dangerous machinery, you must take action to prevent it causing them harm.
What you must do
-
You must pay for rest breaks; meal breaks are unpaid.
-
You must give employees:
-
A 10 minute paid rest break for each 2 to 4 hour work period.
-
A 10 minute paid rest break and a 30 minute unpaid meal break for a 4 to 6 hour work period.
-
Two 10 minute paid rest breaks and a 30 minute unpaid meal break within a 6 to 8 hour work period.
-
For anything over 8 hours, add the extra breaks to the 6 to 8 hour break entitlement. For example, in a 10 hour shift, add the 2 to 4 hour entitlement to the 6 to 8 hour entitlement to get a total break allowance of three 10 minute paid rest breaks and a 30 minute unpaid break.
What you could do
-
You can offer longer or more frequent break periods if necessary - either paid or unpaid. Employees who work long hours, shift-work or physically demanding work may need to take breaks more frequently to prevent fatigue and accidents.
-
In some businesses, such as retail, it's just not practical to have all staff take a break at the same time. Talk to your employees about ways to stagger breaks so they don't disrupt customer service.
-
Employers and employees are free to agree to additional entitlements to rest and meal breaks either paid or unpaid.
-
The details as to where the breaks are taken can be negotiated by agreement between employee and employer – this could be in the workplace or off-site.
Infant feeding
An employee coming back to work after taking parental leave may want to feed her baby or express breast milk at work. Work-life balance is increasingly important to employees and any way you can support mothers working for you will help you retain their services.
What you must do
-
Consider a request from an employee who wishes to breastfeed or express milk in the workplace.
-
Consider if it is reasonable and practicable in the circumstances to provide breaks and facilities.
-
See the Code of Employment Practice on Infant Feeding for guidance on employer obligations
What you could do
-
Negotiate the frequency and length of breastfeeding breaks with your employee. Breastfeeding breaks are in addition to rest and meal breaks unless agreed otherwise. They are paid only if agreed between you and your employee. Please see the factsheet for more information.
-
You could find somewhere appropriate and private for employees who are breastfeeding or expressing milk.
-
If you can't provide the space for infant feeding, you could allow time so that your employee can use off-site facilities such as a crèche or Plunket room if they wish.
-
Mothers who wish to express at work may require a fridge to store their breast milk in.
Provide a safe and healthy workplace
As an employer, you must take ‘all practicable steps’ to ensure the safety of your employees while they are at work. This includes your workplace plus any other sites, such as building, farming or forestry sites, where they do work for you.
Taking 'all practicable steps' means thinking about the ways that someone could be harmed and doing what is reasonably practicable to ensure the safety of that person. Doing what is 'reasonable' means approaching health and safety in a rational and cautious manner, taking into account how seriously someone could be harmed, how likely it is, how you could prevent it and what safeguards are available. You should also understand industry specific hazards that may affect your workplace.
What you must do
-
Provide a safe working environment and facilities, such as first aid kits and protective equipment, for staff safety and health.
-
Ensure any plant or equipment they use is designed and made safe for the employee to use and is properly maintained.
-
Develop emergency procedures.
-
Develop a system to identify new and existing hazards then eliminate, isolate, or minimise significant hazards.
-
Record the details of any incidents or accidents and investigate to determine what needs to be done to prevent it happening again.
-
Report any serious harm incidents to the Department of Labour.
-
Involve your employees in developing ways to improve health and safety.
-
Ensure that employees are aware of hazards that may affect them in the work they do and the controls that are in place to prevent harm.
-
Make sure that all employees are adequately trained in safe operating procedures and supervised as they learn.
-
Keep a first aid kit in each place where people are working. Kits should be a sufficient size to cope with the number of people needing to use it.
What you could do
Work through the Health and Safety Section
