Question One

Carole runs a business from her home selling expensive speciality cat food online to customers all over New Zealand. The cat food is made to her own recipe and she manufactures it in her garage. The business has been so successful that she has recently decided to employ some people to help her with various tasks such as manufacturing the cat food, marketing, running the website and processing orders.

Carole has drafted a proposed Employment Agreement for her future employees which, amongst others, contains the following proposed terms:

• The employee agrees that s/he is a casual employee and has no expectation of ongoing work.
• The employee will work 38 hours a week on Mondays to Friday. The hours of work each day will be 9 am to 5pm.
• The employee will be entitled to two weeks of paid annual leave each year.
• The employee will be paid gross hourly rate of $17 per hour.
• The employer will not pay employees for the hours they work on 22 December in 2020 but instead will host a dinner for employees and their families.
• The employee shall not, for a period of five years after ceasing to work for Carole, work for any business that supplies pet food in New Zealand and Australia.

Carole asks your advice on her draft Employment Agreement. She wants to know if there are any legal problems with the terms she proposes and if you have any suggestions for improvement.

Required:

Referring to relevant law, identify and explain any legal problems with the proposed terms and provide suggestions on how to improve them.

Question Two

Some time has passed, Caroles business has continued to expand. Recently she has become dissatisfied with one of her employees, Joe. Joe does not get on well with the rest of the employees and he has upset a few people, including Carole, by making judgmental comments about individuals clothing as well as lifestyle choices.

Carole also feels that Joe does not take enough initiative. He waits to be instructed what to do on a day to day basis rather than seeing what needs to be done and getting on with it. Carole has said to him several times you need to lift your game and make more of an effort. Carole has not seen any improvement however and she also suspects that Joe is quite often drunk at work as she thinks she can smell alcohol on his breath.

One day, Carole hears Joe swear and slam the telephone down on a customer. She calls Joe into her office and tells him I will not tolerate rudeness to customers. Im done with you.

Joe says that he was not talking to a customer but to a friend who was prank calling him but Carole tells him that she is not interested in listening to lies and that the relationship has not been working for some time now. She says that Joe is dismissed with immediate effect and that she will call the police if he is not off her property within an hour.

A month has passed, and Joe has not been able to find another job. Carole has heard that Joe is thinking about bringing a personal grievance for unjustified dismissal against her. Will Carole be able to justify this dismissal if Joe challenges it?

Required:

Apply the law to the facts and discuss whether Joe is likely to succeed in a personal grievance for unjustified dismissal. Also, explain the remedies that might be available should he succeed.