We have all seen the media reports of employers not meeting their obligations to keep good records and it is likely that in the current economic environment we are going to see more.

Under the following Acts, an employer is required to keep accurate time records of Who Worked When?

• The Employment Relations Act
• The Holidays Act
• The Health and Safety at Work Act

Employers must keep the following detailed records and they need to be readily available:

The number of hours worked EACH DAY in a pay period and the pay for those hours (Unless the employee works fixed hours as specified in their EA and these hours DO NOT vary)

The DATES of leave taken, including annual holidays, sick leave and bereavement, and payment received for each.

The DATES and number of hours worked on public holidays and the payment for these.

The DATES of, and payments for, any public holidays or alternative holidays they didn’t work but were entitled to holiday pay.

Unless you have a time and attendance or payroll system which stores this data it is UNLIKELY you can be compliant. If your only record is the payroll and it does not store detailed, dated records you CANNOT be compliant.

If an employer doesn’t keep all the accurate wage and time, holiday and leave records a The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) or a Labour Inspector may give them a penalty.

This could be up to $50,000 for an individual; or for a company, the greater of $100,000 or 3x the amount of the financial gain made

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