On 6 March 2015 amendments to the Employment Relations Act 2000
came into force. The changes cover a range of employment matters
but two sets of changes reflect the changing nature of the modern
workplace.
It is no longer the case that everyone works 9 – 5, Monday
to Friday. There are many different variations of working hours and
arrangements and changes to breaks and flexible working requests
reflect the view that each employer and employee will be able to
agree working arrangements that best suit them. This article looks
at the changes to breaks – in our next newsletter we will
consider changes to flexible working requests.
The key change for breaks is a move away from the prescriptive
formula previously applied. There is no longer an absolute
requirement that if an employee works a certain number of hours
he/she will be entitled to a set break.
