Employment Law Roadshow Aotearoa 2025

SESSION 1 – 9:10 AM

The Changing Landscape & Essential Updates for Aotearoa in 2026
Presented by BUDDLE FINDLAY

Employment Relations Amendment Bill 2025
• Understand how the new contractor gateway test, personal grievance reforms, and high-income dismissal thresholds will alter employment relationships.

Holidays Act Reform
• Get ready for the new hours-based leave system, simplified pay calculations, and clear transition timelines for compliance.

Pay Transparency and Remuneration Disclosure
• Explore how pay discussion rights and reporting obligations will reshape pay equity, culture, and employee expectations.

Health and Safety Reform Programme 2026
• Learn what the upcoming phase of HSWA amendments means for directors’ duties, psychosocial risk, and wellbeing compliance.

Privacy and AI in the Workplace
• See how emerging regulation affects data use, employee monitoring, and AI-assisted decision-making in HR.

Recent Case Law and Enforcement Trends
• Review recent Employment Court rulings and compliance investigations shaping employer practice across Aotearoa.

SESSION 2 – 10:10 AM

The New Holidays Act: Getting Ready for the 2026 Rollout
Presented by MinterEllison RuddWatts

After years of complexity and payroll errors, the new Holidays Act promises clarity — but it also demands major system and policy change. This session explains what’s changing and how to ensure your organisation is compliant by 2026.

Hours-Based Leave Accrual
• Understand how leave will accrue and be paid under the new hourly model for all employees.

Simplified Pay Calculations
• Learn how the single pay-rate method will affect payroll and workforce planning.

Managing Leave for Variable Workers
• Discover how to handle irregular hours, part-time work, and shift patterns under the new rules.

Transition and Implementation Timeline
• Plan for a 24-month lead-in period, including systems, contracts, and training updates.

Compliance and Risk Management
• Identify how to audit current payroll systems and prevent costly non-compliance once the new Act takes effect.

11:10 AM: Morning Tea & Networking

SESSION 3 – 11:35 AM

Pay Transparency and Remuneration Fairness
Presented by Russell McVeagh

Pay transparency is now law, and employers must adapt to a new era of openness around remuneration. This session explores how to balance compliance, equity, and culture in your pay practices.

Understanding the New Pay Disclosure Law
• Learn how the new framework affects employees’ rights to discuss and compare pay.

Gender and Ethnic Pay Gap Reporting
• Gain insight into the growing trend of voluntary and mandatory reporting and how to prepare your data.

Creating Transparent Pay Structures
• Explore approaches to remuneration bands, job levelling, and communication strategies.

Handling Disputes and Comparisons
• Manage challenges that arise when pay discussions highlight inequities within teams.

Cultural and Organisational Impacts
• Hear how transparency can influence engagement, trust, and retention across your workforce.

SESSION 4 – 12:35 PM

Mental Health, Psychosocial Safety, and Employer Liability
Presented by Simpson Grierson

Mental health and psychosocial safety are now core to legal compliance. This session examines the growing expectations on employers to identify, manage, and mitigate psychological risks at work.

Psychosocial Risk Framework
• Understand how WorkSafe and MBIE define mental health hazards and what that means in practice.

Employer Duties Under the HSWA
• Learn what constitutes “reasonably practicable” steps to manage mental health risk.

Preventing Bullying, Harassment, and Stress Claims
• Build proactive systems for early intervention and complaint management.

Creating a Psychologically Safe Culture
• Explore leadership behaviours and communication strategies that foster trust and wellbeing.

Recent Case Law and Enforcement Action
• Review lessons from Whakaari / White Island prosecutions and new psychosocial safety decisions.

SESSION 5 – 2:20 PM

Workplace Investigations and Misconduct: Getting Process Right
Presented by Dentons Kensington Swan

Poor investigations are one of the biggest sources of legal risk for employers. This practical session explains how to conduct investigations that stand up to legal scrutiny.

Setting Up an Investigation Properly
• Learn how to define scope, appoint investigators, and manage confidentiality.

Procedural Fairness and Natural Justice
• Ensure fairness for both complainants and respondents throughout the process.

Evidence Gathering and Documentation
• Understand how to collect, record, and handle information to protect integrity and privacy.

Managing Bias and Conflicts of Interest
• Identify and mitigate unconscious bias in workplace investigations.

Drafting Findings and Outcomes
• Know how to prepare legally defensible reports and communicate results effectively.

SESSION 6 – 3:20 PM

Managing Restructures, Redundancies, and High-Risk Terminations
Presented by Bell Gully

With cost pressures and workforce changes accelerating, employers need to manage restructures and terminations carefully to stay compliant and fair.

Restructure and Redundancy Process
• Understand consultation requirements, redeployment obligations, and notice periods.

High-Income Threshold for Dismissals
• Learn how the new threshold changes access to personal grievance claims.

Performance and Conduct Terminations
• Manage difficult exits while minimising procedural risk.

Settlement Agreements and Mediation
• Use without-prejudice discussions effectively to achieve fair outcomes.

Reputation and Morale Management
• Handle communication and transition planning to protect culture and brand.

4:20 PM: AFTERNOON TEA

SESSION 7 – 4:30 PM

Technology, AI, and Employee Privacy in the Modern Workplace
Presented by Chapman Tripp

As workplaces embrace automation and digital monitoring, employers face new privacy, ethics, and compliance challenges. This session examines the intersection of law, technology, and human behaviour.

Employee Data and Privacy Law Obligations
• Understand employer responsibilities under the Privacy Act and guidance from the Privacy Commissioner.

Use of AI in Recruitment and HR Decisions
• Explore emerging risks around bias, transparency, and fairness in algorithmic decision-making.

Workplace Surveillance and Remote Monitoring
• Learn what is lawful when tracking productivity, communications, or online behaviour.

Cross-Border Data Transfers
• Manage data securely across jurisdictions and cloud systems.

Ethical and Cultural Considerations
• Discuss how technology can support, rather than undermine, trust and transparency at work.

3:30 PM: CONFERENCE CLOSE