Employment Agreements
Under the old Employment Contracts Act it was not necessary (although preferable) to put individual agreements in writing.
However the Employment Relations Act now specifically provides for all agreements (contracts) both Collective and Individual to be provided in the written form. This applies to full time, part time, permanent and temporary employees.
Organisations who have only had verbal agreements with employees will now need to formalise these into written agreements with copies supplied to relevant employees. Obviously care needs to be taken to ensure all relevant details of the previous verbal agreements are now incorporated fully and correctly into the written document to the satisfaction of both parties.
The 'Subscriber' section of the PHA Consultants site contains a sample Individual Agreement. (Subscriber access only)
If you require any assistance in designing or formalising Individual Agreements contact PHA Consultants for advice.
Casual/Part time Employees
There appears to be some confusion with many employers over the definition and difference between part time and casual employees.
Part time employees are employed on a regular basis on hours that are less than full time. A part time employee may work a certain number of hours per week and or, only on certain days per week. The set number of hours or days should be established at appointment time and must be recorded in the agreement.
If hours are not stipulated in the agreement, the Labour Department (Mediation Service) is likely to assess an employee's hours as those the employee has been regularly working. For example, a person is employed part time (but hours are not recorded in the agreement) and initially works 30 hours per week during the first 3 months of employment. If these hours are then arbitrarily reduced to 20 hours per week, the employee may then have a legitimate claim for a personal grievance. (For the lost 10 hours per week)
Effectively the only difference between a part time and full time employee is the part time employee works less than full time hours per week. All other employment related terms and conditions and legal requirements apply equally to both types of employees.
Casual employees however are a different proposition and may be employed for a set number of hours or set periods of time at varying times throughout the year. A casual employee is not a permanent employee as are part time and full time employees.
A casual is employed only when specifically contacted to come in and complete a specified number of hours during any given period of time. For example an employer may contact a casual employee to come in and fill a shift on a production line whilst a permanent employee is away on sick leave. The employer may not then contact the casual for many weeks or months until such time as work loads demand additional casual employment again.
On each occasion of employment of the casual employee the terms and conditions of employment may vary because each occasion is treated as separate periods of employment. In effect a casual employee is appointed and terminated for each period they are brought in to work.
