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Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.

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Speaker 1: Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Time once again to have a chat with Gareth abden Or.

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Speaker 2: He is an employment, workplace and information expert, Director of

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Speaker 2: abden Or Employment Law. He's with us once a month

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Speaker 2: and he is back with us this afternoon. Get a

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Speaker 2: Gareth good a guys, how you doing very well? Nice

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Speaker 2: to have your back mate. So, just before we get

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Speaker 2: into our audience questions and phocals on one hundred and

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Speaker 2: eighty ten eighty at the moment, I imagine you're getting

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Speaker 2: quite a few questions regarding the fuel prices and can

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Speaker 2: I work from home? And what do I need to do?

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Speaker 2: What are you telling those people?

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Speaker 3: That's a very good question. It's it's a tricky one, man.

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Speaker 3: It's it's almost like flashbacks to COVID, isn't it. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I think the biggest question I'm or the question I'm

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Speaker 3: being asked most often, is what happens when my staff

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Speaker 3: get stuck overseas. And there's a lot of people out

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Speaker 3: there that just assume that if they get stuck overseas

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Speaker 3: that they can work off their laptop, and for some people,

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Speaker 3: that might be feasible, but for a lot of people,

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Speaker 3: that's not going to work. So I think that's something

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Speaker 3: that's on a lot of employers' minds.

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Speaker 4: There'll be a lot of people that are trying to

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Speaker 4: work from home under the cover of this, looking to

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Speaker 4: gage a situations so they can return to their slack

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Speaker 4: ways working at home and their pjs.

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Speaker 2: So find balance, isn't it for an employer? And I

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Speaker 2: imagine that's who's coming to you, Gareth to say, getting

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Speaker 2: all these requests from my employees and they don't really

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Speaker 2: need to work from home. So there must be Is

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Speaker 2: there legislation there that they can come back to or

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Speaker 2: rules to say, well, look, I know you want to

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Speaker 2: work from home, but we're not at that point now,

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Speaker 2: and you've just got to suck it up and come in.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, there's some provisions that any worker can

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Speaker 3: request flexible work arrangements, which would include potentially working from home,

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Speaker 3: and an employer has to consider those requests, but then

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Speaker 3: it sets out certain factors that they can refuse the

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Speaker 3: request for. And you know, for a lot of businesses,

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Speaker 3: it doesn't make sense to people for people to work

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Speaker 3: from home. You know, it's it's great not having someone

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Speaker 3: looking over your shoulder, and you can work in your

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Speaker 3: pjs and and all of that sort of stuff, but

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Speaker 3: doesn't actually work for the business or the organization.

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Speaker 4: As my boss when I was working in London on

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Speaker 4: July seventh, two thousand and five, during the terrorist attacks,

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Speaker 4: my boss from Birmingham said, when I rang up and

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Speaker 4: he said, get into work, you're coward.

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Speaker 3: Sounds really sensitive.

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Speaker 4: Good operator, good operator, but one of the tubes exploded.

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Speaker 4: Get in your coward.

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Speaker 2: That's how you run a business.

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Speaker 1: Right, And just before we.

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Speaker 4: Got into other questions, what should you do if you

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Speaker 4: suspect your co worker as a KGB agent?

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, I'm surprised. You guys were talking about

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Speaker 3: potent selling shoes, but no one mentioned l Bundy.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: How can you talk about selling shoes and not talk

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Speaker 3: about L Bundy? Yeah, good point.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is a shame.

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Speaker 6: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll do better.

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Speaker 3: Gareth will do better.

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Speaker 2: Right, he is standing by taking your calls. Oh, eight

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Speaker 2: hundred and eighty ten eighty and nineteen nine two is

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Speaker 2: the text, get a kim.

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Speaker 6: Hi.

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Speaker 7: He you doing very good.

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Speaker 2: Gareth is standing by.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, great, Hi, Gareth, I'm in the pro Yeah, I'm

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Speaker 7: in the process at the moment of being maybe made redundant.

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Speaker 7: Now in my contract, there's no notice period of how

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Speaker 7: much notice they have to give me. Yet if I leave,

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Speaker 7: I have to give four weeks notice. Would that be

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Speaker 7: the same for them for the redundancy.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Kim, it's pretty unusual for their only to be

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Speaker 3: a notice period for one of the parties to the agreement.

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Speaker 3: If there's no notice period specified, if you're made redundant,

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Speaker 3: then the law says that you need to be provided

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Speaker 3: reasonable notice. And I think you've got a really strong

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Speaker 3: argument that that would be the period that's put in

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Speaker 3: there for you if you resign. So that's where I'd

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Speaker 3: be starting, So it.

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Speaker 7: Would be four weeks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but.

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Speaker 3: You can always ask for more and then they have

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Speaker 3: to justify it because they have to give you reasonable notice.

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Speaker 3: It does sound like the employment agreement is perhaps not

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Speaker 3: as good as it should be.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, because I did approach it with him and they said, no,

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Speaker 7: that it wouldn't be four weeks. It would probably be

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Speaker 7: about two weeks. And they sort of said, oh, it's

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Speaker 7: something to do with government legislation or something.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, sounds a bit fishy. I'd push back on that right.

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Speaker 7: Okay, it's good to know.

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Speaker 2: Good luck, Yeah, good luck. Thank you very much for

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Speaker 2: your phone call eighty ten eighty is that number to

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Speaker 2: call if you've got a question for Gareth? Now is

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Speaker 2: your opportunity some texts coming through on nine two ninet two.

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Speaker 4: Gaday, guys, quick question. Am I considered a full time

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Speaker 4: employee if I am a contractor to a company but

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Speaker 4: in the contract I am not allowed to work for

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Speaker 4: any other company or any other work. Doesn't seem right,

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Speaker 4: but they say that's how they do business. Thanks for

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Speaker 4: your info.

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Speaker 7: PS.

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Speaker 4: Butter bullets are great skate shoes. Okay, so we'll go

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Speaker 4: with the first question.

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Speaker 3: Comment on the skates shoe aspect of it. But no,

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Speaker 3: you're not a full time employee if you're a contractor.

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Speaker 3: If you're a contractor, you're a contractor. I guess the

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Speaker 3: real question is are you actually a contractor? Now there

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Speaker 3: is new legislation out which has a test that you

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Speaker 3: can look at, but this is it's a bit of

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Speaker 3: a vexed question and it's gone through the courts time

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Speaker 3: and time again. If you are prevented from working for

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Speaker 3: competitors and you can't do any other work, I think

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Speaker 3: you should be asking more questions because you might actually

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Speaker 3: be an employee. But it's not a straightforward one. The

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Speaker 3: real question is are you in business on your own account?

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Speaker 3: And if you're charging GST and claiming deductions and stuff

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Speaker 3: like that, and then you argue you're an employee, you

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Speaker 3: may actually need to pay some money back. So not

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Speaker 3: straightforward something that I would definitely be getting proper advice on.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very interesting. We're joined by Gareth Abdnor, an employment,

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Speaker 2: workplace and information expert and director of Abdenor Employment Law,

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Speaker 2: taking your questions and anything going on in your workplace.

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Speaker 4: Eleanor Eleanor Abdnor.

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Speaker 6: Hello, I'm calling on behalf of somebody else. Okay, this

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Speaker 6: person has finishty job with a company or NGO. They've

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Speaker 6: noticed that there's a discrepancy in their pay and they've

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Speaker 6: brought it up with their boss and said to their boss,

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Speaker 6: my holiday pay is not correct. The boss said, I'll

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Speaker 6: look into it. This was in December last year. Now

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Speaker 6: fast forward. He still hasn't head back from her, so

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Speaker 6: he went to an accountant. The accountant looked at the

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Speaker 6: numbers and said, yes, there's about two thousand dollars owing

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Speaker 6: to you. The accountant emailed the boss. The boss emailed

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Speaker 6: back and he said, no, it's incorrect. You need to

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Speaker 6: pay my client this much money. And it's been three

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Speaker 6: months now and he still hasn't been paid out.

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Speaker 8: What is the next step.

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Speaker 3: I suggest that your friend Lodge's acclaim with the Employment

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Speaker 3: Relations Authority for I'm paid wages. That tends to get

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Speaker 3: a response quite quickly from the other side. Sounds like

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Speaker 3: they've tried to do it the nice way and it

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Speaker 3: hasn't been a priority Lodge a claim. I think the

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Speaker 3: final fees about seventy two dollars, sounds like it's well

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Speaker 3: worth going to that expense to actually actually get a response.

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Speaker 6: And what if there's been multiple other people experience us

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Speaker 6: as well, because it's not.

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Speaker 3: Just your friend. Could potentially contact the Labor Inspectorate and

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Speaker 3: a labor inspector might get involved. If it's affecting more

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Speaker 3: than one person, it can be a bit difficult to

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Speaker 3: predict whether they are prepared to take it on or not,

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Speaker 3: but that's worth a try.

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Speaker 2: Or the very best eleanor thank you very much for

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Speaker 2: giving us a call, Prisana, how are you?

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Speaker 5: Oh hey good? Thank you hey? Like we are eied

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Speaker 5: of you employers and the hired a couple of employs

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Speaker 5: and one of the aid of the employees contract says

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Speaker 5: he should be given at least thirty hours a week.

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Speaker 5: And he has worked with he's with us like more

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Speaker 5: than one hundred weeks now almost like two years, and

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Speaker 5: some of the weeks he has worked less than thirty hours.

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Speaker 5: That's what we so recently when we looked into his profile.

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Speaker 5: So the immigration has also picked up on that. But

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Speaker 5: on an average he has worked thirty four or more

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Speaker 5: than thirty four hours per week was a two year speriod.

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Speaker 5: So are we actually in breach a contract?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it really depends on what exactly is in the contract.

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Speaker 3: If it sees an employee will be given at least

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Speaker 3: thirty hours a week and they haven't been given that,

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Speaker 3: then you might owe the money. But you have to

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Speaker 3: look at exactly what the clause sees. It may be

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Speaker 3: that an average is fine, but certainly not something that

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Speaker 3: I can comment on without actually seeing the documents. It

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Speaker 3: does sometimes happen that people take the approach that well,

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Speaker 3: it averages out and that's fear. But if that's not

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Speaker 3: what the contract is, well, then the employee might have

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Speaker 3: a claim to wages. I suggest that you carefully look

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Speaker 3: at the contract and then if necessary, get some advice.

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Speaker 2: Or the very best persona. Thank you very much for

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Speaker 2: your question, Cindy. Gareth is standing by.

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Speaker 6: Hello.

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Speaker 8: I just wanted to know if I'm doing the right

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Speaker 8: thing at that end the day. So I normally have

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Speaker 8: two staff members that work on the Saturday. We were

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Speaker 8: going to close for the whole day on the Saturday

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Speaker 8: for ends that day. They also normally work on the Monday,

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Speaker 8: so they would just go to work and be paid

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Speaker 8: as normal on the Monday.

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Speaker 3: Gosh, I'm not sure I follow there. If the Fanzact

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Speaker 3: day is a day that they normally work and you're closing,

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Speaker 3: well then you need to pay them. I don't know

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Speaker 3: about the Monday. What I always say to people with

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Speaker 3: public holidays is you really need to sit down and

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Speaker 3: plot it out. And the best place to lock is

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Speaker 3: the employment dot go o VT dot NZ website. That's

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Speaker 3: really useful because it actually sets out examples, and so

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Speaker 3: I suggest you have a look at that, and I'm

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Speaker 3: pretty sure that will have the answer for you.

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Speaker 8: Very good.

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Speaker 2: So he all the very best with that one. They're

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Speaker 2: stuck in a bit of a holiday. Pay one there

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Speaker 2: for you.

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Speaker 6: Gareth.

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Speaker 2: Time exactly. Hey, always fantastic to have you on. Thank

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Speaker 2: you very much again. Go well down then we'll catch

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Speaker 2: up in about a month's time.

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Speaker 3: Thanks guys. Have a good Easter.

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Speaker 2: Yeah you too. That is Gareth abdenor Employment work Place,

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Speaker 2: an information expert and director of Abdenor Employment Law. He

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Speaker 2: is brilliant. If you want to get a hold of him,

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Speaker 2: just go to his website or law dot z. And

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Speaker 2: I've got to read this out. The content of this

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Speaker 2: segment is general in nature and is not legal advice.

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Speaker 2: Any information discussed is not intended to be a substitute

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Speaker 2: for obtaining specific professional advice, and shouldn't be relied upon

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Speaker 2: as such.

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Speaker 1: For more from NEWSTALKSB listen live on air or online

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