Minimum Wage Increase
On the 1st of April this year the minimum wage increased to $20.00 per hour. All employees who are employed on minimum wage are affected by this change. From the 1st of April these employees should have been receiving $20.00 per hour as opposed to $18.90. If this applies to you and you have not received the increase, then we suggest you speak to your employer. If this does not resolve it then take some legal advice.
Bereavement Leave
Bereavement leave under the Holidays Act has now been extended to cover miscarriages and still births. A miscarriage is the loss of a baby up to the 20-week stage. After 20 weeks, it is referred to as a still birth. This is an important change as it gives employees time to grieve and take care of the difficult matters that need to be attended to when experiencing something as traumatic as a miscarriage or still birth.
You can claim bereavement leave for a miscarriage or still birth if:
a) You as an employee suffer a miscarriage or still birth;
b) Your spouse or partner suffers a miscarriage or still birth;
c) Your former spouse or partner suffers a miscarriage or still birth if you would have been the biological parent of the child;
d) If you had undertaken to be the primary caregiver of the child – this might cover circumstances such as adoption.
Like other forms of bereavement leave, you are only eligible once you have worked for your employer for six months. Once you qualify you are entitled to three days leave.
Increase in Sick Leave
The Holidays (Increasing Sick Leave) Amendment Bill passed its Third Reading last week on 19 May 2021. This increases employees sick leave entitlements from 5 days to 10 days per year (once they have worked for their employer for six months).
Vulnerable Workers to Include Security Officers
Under the Employment Relations Act there is a section which provides protection for ‘vulnerable workers’ during a restructure (i.e. the business is being sold or transferred). Vulnerable workers under the Act are people who carry out cleaning services, or food catering services in any workplace, laundry services within the education, health or age-related residential care sector, orderly services within the health or age related residential care sector and caretaking services for the education sector.
For these groups of employees, if their employer is selling the business, the employees can choose whether to transfer to the new employer on the same terms and conditions that they there were on with their existing employer. The effect of that protection is that when they transfer to their new employer, it is as if nothing has changed in terms of their working conditions.
Security Officers for the purposes of this protection are those people who work:
a) Guarding property;
b) Monitoring security cameras;
c) Crowd control;
d) Escort duty;
e) Courtroom custodial duty;
f) Mobile security patrols;
g) Collecting cash from any premises.
If you are working in any of those occupations, you will be covered by the new protection as of the 1st of July this year.
