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Here's what is leading the news for employers this week: "Changes are being made to the Active Investor Plus Visa from 1 April 2025 to help New Zealand encourage growth and make investing in New Zealand more attractive. Two simplified investment categories will be introduced — Growth and Balanced. Investments made by either must be completed within 6 months of the date of approval in principle. These migrants will have higher immigration requirements. The scope of acceptab

Here's what is leading the news for employers this week: "Old equipment repurposed by businesses must be safe to use, WorkSafe New Zealand says, following sentencing of a Rotorua company whose modified crane became a weapon that changed the life of a teenage contractor. Harrison Gilbert was struck in the face by an untethered 412-kilogram steel beam being maneuvered by the mobile crane at Lakeland Steel in Rotorua, on the day of his seventeenth birthday in October 2022. Mr Gi

Here's what is leading the news for employers this week: A new pilot programme connecting high school students with New Zealand manufacturers has launched, Small Business and Manufacturing Minister Chris Penk has announced. “Manufacturing is a powerful economic player, contributing about 8.4 percent of New Zealand’s GDP and employing 10 percent of our workforce – but businesses are telling us skill shortages are curbing productivity,” Mr Penk says. “Manufacturing can supercha

Here's what is leading the news for employers this week: Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says an income threshold for unjustified dismissal claims will apply to existing employment agreements after one year. The income threshold, above which personal grievances cannot be pursued, will be introduced as part of upcoming changes to the Employment Relations Act. “The $180,000 threshold will apply to new employment agreements once the Bill is passed and

Here's what is leading the news for employers this week: New visa conditions will now allow visitors to work remotely for an overseas employer or client. The change applies to applications received from 27 January 2025 for all visitors, including tourists and people visiting family, and partners and guardians on longer-term visitor visas. These new conditions mean that tourists can stay in New Zealand as a digital nomad and keep in touch with work back home, without breaching

Here's what is leading the news for employers this week: The requirements to complete Employment New Zealand's online modules for the AEWV are being removed on 27 January 2025. These will be removed for all current and future accredited employers and Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSEs). Immigration New Zealand (INZ) will instead provide employers and workers with links to freely available Employment New Zealand or INZ webpages, that set out employment rights and obligations

Holidays Act event with the EMA Last week we sent you an invitation to attend the EMA’s event with the Hon. Brooke Van Velden on the upcoming changes to the Holidays Act. Unfortunately, the EMA’s event system experienced an unusual problem with registrations, preventing you from attending online like we encouraged you to do. We want to apologise for sharing an invitation that you could not use, and for any frustration that not being able to register caused. We look forward

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says it is important employees are not rewarded in the personal grievance system for poor behaviour or performance and is introducing changes to personal grievances to strengthen employee accountability. “Simplifying personal grievances is a policy ACT campaigned on, in particular, removing the eligibility for remedies if the employee is at fault and is an ACT-National Coalition Agreement commitment. These changes will

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says an upcoming change to the Employment Relations Act will enable employers to ensure they have the right fit for their high impact leadership and specialist roles. Cabinet has agreed to introduce an income threshold of $180,000 per annum for unjustified dismissal personal grievances, meaning employees earning above that will be unable to raise an unjustified dismissal claim. This policy delivers on the ACT-National

Regulation Minister David Seymour has announced the next steps in the Government’s plan to improve the quality of regulation by opening consultation on a proposed Regulatory Standards Bill. “New Zealand's low wages can be blamed on low productivity, and low productivity can be blamed on poor regulation,” says Mr Seymour. “To lift productivity and wages, ACT’s coalition agreement includes a commitment to pass a Regulatory Standards Act. “The Bill will codify principles of goo

Business Central faced a challenging year as recessionary conditions impacted revenue from services and as public sector job cuts impacted the Wellington economy . As an organisation we took the opportunity to focus on productivity, review our products and merge our revenue services into one team. Our member retention rate was consistent with long term trend, despite a lift in fees to meet the demands of inflation.

New Zealand had a net migration gain of 44,900 in the September 2024 year, according to provisional estimates released by Stats NZ. “Annual net migration gains have continued falling from the provisional peak of 136,300 in the October 2023 year,” international migration statistics manager Sarah Drake said. “The fall in net migration reflects that arrivals are down, and departures are up.” There were 177,900 migrant arrivals in the September 2024 year, which is still high by h

We’re excited to announce a proud partnership with Best Places to Work for 2025! Our mission of delivering business support you can count on is a natural fit with their goals: helping Kiwi businesses grow stronger and build workplaces that prioritise people and positive impact. This means Business Central members and the BPTW community now have access to a greater range of powerful tools to help drive employee engagement, customer satisfaction, community commitment, and stron

Unemployment continues to grow, with more people remaining unemployed for longer periods and a declining employment rate, while wage growth slows, according to figures released by Stats NZ. In the September 2024 quarter: Unemployment rate was 4.8 percent Employment rate was 67.8 percent Annual wage inflation was 3.8 percent Average ordinary time hourly earnings were $41.98 Download the bulletin:

Averaged out across all industries, in September 2024 there was no seasonally adjusted change in the 2.36 million filled jobs in New Zealand (compared with the August 2024 month). Specifically, primary industries were down 0.8 percent (872 jobs) and goods-producing industries were down 0.2 percent (759 jobs). Service industries were up 0.1 percent (2,711 jobs). Filled jobs were 2.35 million – down 20,839 (0.9 percent) – compared with September 2023. The regions of New Zealand

The Government is ensuring New Zealand attracts and retains the workers and skills it needs by returning open work rights to partners of high-skilled migrants. “We are committed to growing the economy and our immigration system is critical to that. From 2 December, open work rights will be available to partners of Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) holders working in higher-skilled roles who earn at least 80% of the median wage,” Immigration Minister Erica Stanford says. Th

As Wellington City Council reviews its Long-Term Plan, a new Wellington Chamber of Commerce-Curia poll shows a significant majority of Wellington City residents believe the council is spending too much on cycleways. The poll shows three quarters of residents believe Wellington City Council is spending “too much” on its cycleway program. Voters of the five largest political parties believe the council is overspending on cycleways, including 51% of Green Party voters. Overall,

New Zealand’s consumers price index increased 2.2 percent in the September 2024 quarter, compared with the September 2023 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ. The 2.2 percent annual increase follows a 3.3 percent annual increase in the June 2024 quarter. “For the first time since March 2021, annual inflation is within the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s target band of 1 to 3 percent. Prices are still rising, but not as much as previously recorded,” consumer price

Investment in Apprenticeship Boost will prioritise critical industries and targeted occupations that are essential to addressing New Zealand’s skills shortages and rebuilding the economy, Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston say. “By focusing Apprenticeship Boost on first-year apprentices in targeted occupations, we are providing employers in critical industries with the certainty to hire and retain

The launch of a new data tool will provide Kiwis with better access to important data, Statistics Minister Andrew Bayly says. “To grow our economy and improve productivity we must adopt smarter ways of working, which means taking a more data driven approach to decision-making. “As Statistics Minister one of my key ambitions is to make data more accessible for the general public and business owners, who might not have big budgets for market research but could benefit from the