Employment agreement guide

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employment agreement guide

If you're a growing business about to take on its first employee, or if you've just been offered a position and want to know if the agreement is right for you, this guide to individual employment agreements can help you understand what you need to know.

Below you'll find a complete list of sections, subsections and clauses that you may find in a standard individual employment agreement. Click on any of them to see a list of possible clauses in that section.

To see the new Restructuring clauses with explanations of when they're needed - select section 12

If you'd like to see a list of clauses which must appear in a legal agreement, click here.

1. The Parties

Contains: Employer & Employee

2. The Position and the Duties

Contains: Position, Duties, Reporting, Performance Objectives, Performance Reviews, Secondment

3. Nature and Term of the Agreement

Contains: Type of Agreement, Probation, Trial Period

4. Obligations of the Relationship

Contains: Employer's Obligations, Employee's Obligations

5. The Place of Work

Contains: Place of Work

6. Hours of Work

Contains: Working Hours, Lunch and Other Meal Breaks, Tea Breaks, Variation of Working Hours

7. Wages/Salary/Allowances

Contains: Types of Pay, Commission, Bonuses, Service Payment, Skills Payment, Review, Allowance (1), Allowance (2), Allowance (3), Penal Rates, Overtime, Reimbursement of Expenses, Reimbursement of Travel Expenses

8. Holidays and Leave Entitlements

Contains: Annual Leave, Holiday Pay for Genuinely Casual Employees, Holiday Pay for Employees on Genuine Fixed Term Agreements, Public Holidays, On-call on Public Holiday on Normal Working Day, On-call on Public Holiday not on Normal Working Day, Sick Leave, When Medical Certificate Required, Bereavement Leave, Parental Leave, Unpaid Leave, Annual Closedown, Jury Duty, Volunteers Employment Protection

9. Other Entitlements/Benefits

Contains: Superannuation, Kiwisaver, Medical Insurance, Reimbursement for Flu Shots, Gym Membership, Reimbursement for Eye Test, Use of Mobile Phone, Use of Car Park, Use of a Car, Study Entitlements, Personal Development, Indemnity, Subsidised Child Care, Breastfeeding

10. Health and Safety

Contains: General Obligations, Policies, VDU and Work Station, Chemical Use, Lifting, Drug Testing, EAP Assistance, Counselling Assistance, Medical Examination

11. Other Employment Obligations

Contains: Confidential Information, Copyrights, Conflicts of Interest, Use of Internet and E-mail, Privacy Obligations, Restraint of Trade - Non-Competition, Restraint of Trade - Non-Solicitation of Clients, Restraint of Trade - Non-Solicitation of Employees, Restraint of Trade - Severability

12. Restructuring and Redundancy

Contains: Rights in contracting out situations, Restructuring due to transfer, Negotiations with new employer, No transfer or employment, Definition, Redundancy Process, Notice of termination due to redundancy, Redundancy compensation, Technical redundancy

13. Termination of Employment

Contains: Termination of Trial Period, General Clause, Termination for Serious Misconduct, Suspension, Termination on Medical Grounds, Abandonment of Employment, Employee's Obligations

14. Resolving Employment Relationship Problems

Contains: Resolving Employment Relationship Problems

15. Acknowledgement of the Agreement

Contains: Variation of Agreement, Non-assignment by Employee, Entire Agreement, Severability, Deductions from Pay, Employee Acknowledgement

16. Declaration

Contains: Declaration