Before You Sign on the Dotted Line...

April 2016

In the November edition of Southern Communicator , Dave Gardiner presents an excellent summary of advice he has received about contracting through a recruitment agency. In this article, employment law writer Louisa Eades of Streamliners adds some notes of relevance to New Zealand readers.

Dave’s article Before You Sign on the Dotted Line... is based on Australian law and experience. Much of his advice is relevant in the New Zealand context, but there are a handful of differences – some important, some minor.

Important differences for New Zealand readers

For Kiwis wanting to learn from Dave's article, please note that:

• Our approach to “super” is different here, although the employer’s KiwiSaver contributions will be relevant if the agency takes you on as an employee.
• The comment about standard protections not existing if your income is below a certain threshold (at the end of the “Ending the contract” section) does not apply in New Zealand.
• The clauses mentioned under “Letters of employment for permanent jobs” do not exist in NZ employment legislation, so if you are an ‘employee’, the notice period in your employment agreement will apply.
• It’s unlikely that a private PAYG accounting service or similar exists in New Zealand (email comms@techcomm.nz if you know of such a scheme).

Minor differences

Finally, minor New Zealand differences are:

• We generally refer to “workers’ compensation” as “ACC”.
• We tend to describe our companies as “Limited” or “Ltd”, not “Pty Ltd”. In NZ, that means that the company is registered under the Companies Act 1993.