Whether you are employing a new person, or adjusting your employment agreements to build greater flexibility into your workforce, “Which contract should I use?” is probably the most common question I’m asked.
And here are a few Myth busters:
- Zero hours contracts are Illegal.
In 2016 there were a lot of headlines about Zero-hours contracts. At the time the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2016 was introduced and this made it a requirement for employers to:
- Include an availability provision, i.e. when you need them to be available to you.
- Have genuine business reasons for including that availability provision.
- Give the ability for the employee to refuse work – i.e. you can’t require the employee to be available 24/7 in case you have a shift for them, so, in return they must have the right to refuse offered work without penalty.
- Include details about the compensation for that availability, i.e. how much they will be paid for cancelled shifts, how much notice will be given for cancelled shifts etc.