A liquor store owner whose behaviour was branded “heinous” by a judge will pay up an unprecedented $200,000 fine for underpaying migrant workers – but is unrepentant. Six Indian migrants were underpaid a total of $250,000 by Paramjeet Singh Parihar and Kuldip Kaur Parihar while working at the couple’s Super Liquor bottle stores in the […]
Category: Holidays Act 2003
Directors can be held personally liable for a breach of the Holidays Act
An Otago business and its director must pay $82,500 for record-keeping breaches involving nearly 20 young workers, following a determination by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA). New Zealand Mountain Hunting Ltd, that operates a hunting lodge outside of Omarama, has been fined $55,000 and director Gary Herbert has been ordered to personally pay a further […]
Dunedin Grocery Store fined $53,000
A Dunedin grocery store and its director found to have flouted employment law have been fined $53,000. The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) handed down the penalties for 40 employment breaches and attempting to deceive labour inspectors. Director Quing (Jade) Luo, was made personally responsible for $8960 in fines. In November 2017, inspectors visited the convenience store to check […]
Contractor or Employee? Getting it wrong can be very costly
The former directors of a Dunedin taxi company have been found personally liable for failing to pay minimum wages and holiday pay. The Employment Relations Authority found Ronald Grant and Maureen Grant treated four taxi drivers as contractors when they were, in fact, employees of Southern Taxis in Dunedin. The decision followed an earlier determination by […]
What is Gross Earnings (MBIE)
Gross Earnings is used in a number of different situations to calculate payment for holidays and other leave. When to use gross earnings in holiday and leave calculations Gross earnings is used to calculate: ordinary weekly pay for determining payment for annual holidays (when the ordinary weekly pay formula is used) average weekly earnings for […]
The cost of Payroll Compliance
Payroll Compliance is possibly the biggest reason why companies choose to outsource their payroll to a company like Ezypay. In the UK, around 80% of companies outsource their payroll. This figure will be much less here possibly due to the Kiwi ‘can do’ attitude. Unfortunately, companies still get it wrong as per the following examples […]
2019 Tax Changes – effective from April 1st, 2019
There is not much happening Tax wise for the 2019/20 Tax Year, just four changes to do with payroll. ACC Earner Levy Threshold – The maximum income on which the ACC levy is applied is increased from $126,286 to $128,470. Student Loan Threshold – The Student Loan Threshold has increased to $19,760 or $380 per […]
Changes to the Employment Relations Act
The following changes came into effect on December 12th, 2018 Changes to the Employment Relations Act now in effect include the following: Union representatives can now enter workplaces without consent, provided the employees are covered under, or bargaining towards, a collective agreement. Pay deductions can no longer be made for partial strikes. Businesses must now […]
Minimum rate to increase by $1.20 in April 2019 to $17.70
New Zealand workers on the minimum wage are set for a significant pay rise. Today the Government announced that the minimum wage will increase to $17.70 an hour on April 1, 2019 – an increase of $1.20 per hour. For a full-time worker this will mean an extra $48 a week before tax. The current […]
2017 April Tax Updates
As is customary this time of year, new updates in relation to payroll come into place. Luckily, this year there is very little change, these are: The ACC Earner Levy Threshold increases from $122,063 to $124,053. This means that you do not need to pay ACC on earnings above $124,503, the rate remains at $1.39 […]