Articles

The Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2011 (‘the Act’) was implemented last year as a response to public demands for better protection for young drivers. Calls for legal reform were motivated by the over-representation of young drivers in crash statistics.

The 2010 Ministry of Transport ‘Young Driver Crash Facts’ document reported that drivers aged 15-24 were involved in 112 fatal crashes, 755 serious injury crashes and 3617 minor injury crashes for the year ending 31 December 2009.

The Act introduces significant changes to our road laws such as the blood alcohol concentration level for drivers aged 20 or younger being decreased from 0.03 to zero. The minimum age for obtaining a driver’s licence has been increased from 15 to 16 years, along with further restrictions on the eligibility criteria for applying for licences in each category. As of 1 August 2011, the minimum criteria for obtaining a licence are as follows: 

Further Changes

Stricter impositions on restricted licences are expected to come into force in mid February of this year. These include making the practical driving tests more challenging. Learner drivers will also be encouraged to gain at least 120 hours of supervised driving experience
before attempting their restricted licence tests. Although no proof is necessary, the challenging practical tests are designed to allow only those with sufficient driving experience to be successful.

 Transitional Provisions

The Act provides transitional provisions for drivers who entered the application process prior to the changes taking effect on 1 August 2011.

 Exemptions

A driver may be granted an exemption to obtain a restricted licence at an age younger than 16½ if they:

• are at least 16 years old,
• have held a learner licence for at least 6 months, and
• have a clean driving record.

 A driver may be granted an exemption to obtain a full licence at an age younger than 18 if they:

• are at least 16 years old,
• have held a restricted licence for at least 18 months (reduced to 12 months if they have successfully completed an approved advanced driving course), and
• have a clean driving record.

 Changes to ‘Give-Way Rules’

Major changes are also set to take place in March this year in relation to our give-way rules. From 25 March 2012 at 5:00 am, all traffic turning right will be required to give way to a vehicle coming from the opposite direction and turning left at cross-roads, T-intersections and driveways where:

• both vehicles are facing each other with no signs or signals,
• both vehicles are facing give way signs,
• both vehicles are facing stop signs, or
• both vehicles are facing green traffic signals. 

The Department of Labour has updated their guidelines assisting business owners and managers to provide a safer work place for staff. If your business is one where robbery is a risk then we recommend you refer to these guidelines to develop clear policy and procedures to deter potential robbers and to minimise the effects of robbery on your staff.  These guidelines were first developed in 2005 and have been updated this month to reflect best practice changes.

 The Health & Safety in Employment Act 1992 outlines the employer’s duty to maintain a safe work place and places emphasis on the obligation on the Employer to develop procedures for dealing with emergencies that may arise in the workplace. It is possible that if an employer fails to protect staff from not only robbery in the work place but also the after affects of that robbery then the employer may be in breach of their legal obligations.

Armed Robery Guidelines

As of 1^st April 2011 a change to the Holidays Act 2003 means that employees are able to request their employers pay out in cash, up to one week of their minimum entitlement to annual holidays per year. There are a few limitations and conditions to this: 

1. This can only be at the employee’s request.
2. Employees may also request to cash up less than one week at a time.
3. More than one request can be made until a maximum of one week of the employees annual holiday is paid out in each entitlement per year.
4. Cashing up can only be made following the employees request being made in writing.
5. An employer must consider that request within a reasonable time and the request may be declined with the employer not being required to provide a reason for the decision.
6. If an employer agrees to pay out a portion of the employee’s annual leave then the payment should be made as soon as possible - usually expected to be the next pay day.
7. Be warned, if an employer has incorrectly paid out a portion of the employee’s annual leave, the paid out portion will be restored to the employee’s annual leave balance and the employee may be entitled to keep the payment.    

As this entitlement only came about from 1^st April 2011 it means that holidays which were accrued prior to that time cannot be used for a pay out. For example, an employee who became entitled to annual holidays in March 2011 (prior to the change in legislation) could not make a request to cash up until they next become entitled to take annual holidays in March 2012.

Alternatively, an employee with an anniversary date of 1^st June is able to request that up to one week is cashed up of their four week annual leave entitlement that they receive on 1^st June 2011. This request can be made at any point in the entitlement year that runs from 1^st June 2011 to 1^st June 2012.

 It is important to note that cashing up cannot be raised in wage/salary negotiations or be a condition of employment. The Employment Agreement may outline the process for making requests for cashing up, such process meeting the minimum requirements set out in the Holidays Act 2003.

An employer is entitled to establish a work place policy that they will not consider any requests to cash up annual holidays. A policy can apply to the whole of the work place or only some parts of the work place. However, if an employee does not have such a policy then they cannot establish policies as to the amount of annual holidays an employee can cash up or the number of requests an employee may make. Given that this will be a new policy in many work places there is a good faith obligation to consult with employees on the development of the policy.

Inevitably cashing up holidays will raise other matters such as the effect of a cash up on superannuation payments, working for families, child support and income tax. Those questions should be best directed to the Inland Revenue on an individual basis.

If you have any queries about cashing up annual leave please contact our employment expert Susie Tait on ph (03) 366 2332.

To the relief of our long-waiting Kaiapoi clients - on 18^th of August 2011, Cera announced:

“Of the 1,330 residential properties zoned orange for further investigation, 860 in Kaiapoi and 80 in Pines Beach have now been zoned red whilst 220 in the northern part of Kaiapoi have been zoned green and a further 70 in the western part will remain in the orange zone for the time being for further investigative work.”

All residents whose properties have been newly zoned red will receive an offer from the Government in the next few weeks to purchase their property. All offers will be subject to the same support, financial or otherwise, as the other previously zoned red zone residents. The Government offers will be based on the 2008 valuation which was in place on 3 September 2010.

Please visit http://cera.govt.nz/sites/cera.govt.nz/files/common/tonking-and-taylor-kaiapoi-pines-beach-presentation-20110818.pdf to see the data that Cera based its decision on.

Government Assistance for Legal Fees

If a homeowner chooses to accept the Government’s offer to purchase their entire property then the Government will contribute up to 50% of their legal costs to a maximum of $750. However, if the acceptance of the Government’s offer is limited to the purchase of the land only, then the Government will contribute 50% of their legal costs to a maximum of $500.

In addition, for those who accept the Government’s offer, the Government is guaranteeing that the deposit of the lesser of 50% of the purchase price (less any insurance payments already made) or $50,000 will be paid soon after the agreement to purchase is signed. The purpose of this is to reduce existing indebtedness, to help arrange financing for purchasing another property, or to pay a deposit for a new home.

Layburn Hodgins Expertise

We have now registered with CERA to be able to act for red zone vendors on any the transactions with the Crown.  

Our Conveyancing Solicitors at Layburn Hodgins have now attended a CERA hosted workshop to further understand the Crown’s proposal and how we can best help our clients.

If you have any questions about your red zoned property or if your property still remains in the orange zone after the announced rezoning, our Lawyers will be at the Kaiapoi Club on Wednesday 31 August 2011 to provide practical legal advice to Kaiapoi residents.  Call Lisa Donnelly 03-3662-332 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to register your interest.

In the case of Costley v Waimea Nurseries Limited [2011] NZERA Christchurch, the Employment Relations Authority ('ERA') found that Mr Costley was unjustifiably dismissed for using drugs at work because Waimea did not disclose to Mr Costley information that was relevant in reaching their decision to dismiss him.