Newsletter – June 2011
Welcome to our Winter newsletter. Please feel free to contact our experienced
team about any employment related matters.
Employment Agreements
The current law requires an employment agreement to be in writing. Employers obligations will be extended on 1
July 2011 to require employers to retain a signed copy of the individual
employment agreement or retain a copy of the terms and conditions of employment
that make up their staff member’s individual terms and conditions. An employer must retain a copy of the
intended employment agreement and be able to provide a copy to any employee who
requests it as soon as reasonably practicable.
Please contact us if you have any queries or would like us to arrange
employment agreements for your staff.
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ABM If Click “Save |
Employing Staff from Overseas
“The Immigration Act 2009” came into effect on 29 November 2010. An easy way to check that prospective
employees can work in NZ is to visit VisaView www.immigration.govt.nz/visaview.
Employees Accruing Large Holiday
Leave Balances
It is important that
employers are aware of leave balances that their staff are accruing. Any accrued annual holidays that an employee has not taken must
be paid out on termination. Excessive
accrued leave can add a significant liability to any business particularly if a
number of staff have built up large leave balances.
Employment Status
When employing a new employee it is important to be clear about the
duties the employee is expected to perform, the hours of work and the status of
the employment. This should be included
in the employment agreement.
An employee’s employment status may be defined as permanent/part time,
fixed term or casual.
Permanent /permanent part time employees are employed for an indefinite
period.
Fixed term employees are employed for a definite period, e.g.
for 12 months to cover parental leave.
Casual employment can be defined as
where an employee is employed when and if needed, e.g. to cover for sickness or only public holidays and where there is no particular expectation of continuing employment.
- Reminder of GST Calculations
- GST = GST
inclusive * 3 / 23 - GST = GST
exclusive * 3 / 20 - GST exclusive =
GST inclusive * 20 / 23 - GST exclusive =
GST * 20 / 3 - GST inclusive =
GST exclusive * 23 / 20 - GST inclusive =
GST * 23 / 3
Cashing Out Annual Holiday
Entitlement
As part of the Holiday Amendment Act 2010 there is provision to allow
an employee to have up to 1 week of current annual holiday entitlement paid
out. This is not compulsory. As an employer you have the right to decline a
request made by the employee and are not required to provide a reason for doing
so.
The main points to consider
are:
- An employee has
the right to request their employer to pay out a portion of the entitlement of
annual leave. - A request must be
in writing and may be made on 1 or more separate occasions until maximum of
employee’s annual entitlement is paid out in each entitlement year. i.e. 1
weeks’ leave. - An employee can
only request to cash up 1 weeks’ annual leave after the anniversary date of
commencement of their employment, e.g.
Anniversary date 1 June 2011, the employee can request cash out on or
after 1 June 2011. - An employee
cannot request to cash up outstanding leave, it must be in the current year. - Cashed up annual
holiday entitlement cannot be from leave in advance. - An employee, who
receives casual holiday pay as they work, cannot request annual leave cash up.
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MYOB When the bank reconciliation has been reconciled To do this, go to: Set Up/Preferences/Security Tab þ Lock Period: disallow entries prior to 1/7/2011.
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Cashed
up annual holiday is a lump sum payment and will fall under the meaning of
“extra pay” for PAYE calculations
Testimonial
“We have used Strategic Software for many years for our Accounting Program as well as our Payroll and have found them to be extremely efficient and reliable. They have a vast knowledge of Accounting Systems and Payroll, nothing was ever a problem. Payroll was a very easy and painless task, Strategic Software took care of every aspect and the reports we received weekly were very detailed with all the information we needed. We have since changed our programs to match our Head Office, however . . .
Carpet Court, Invercargill
