Employer Self-Audit Questionnaire

Employment Standards

Purpose

This questionnaire has been created for employers so that you can measure how well you are providing for minimum employment standards in your workplace.

Failing to provide for minimum employment standards is serious. Such failures not only disadvantage and demotivate employees but also undermine fair competition between employers. Where employers are found to be in breach of employment standards then as well as corrective action being required, penalties can also be sought. Another negative consequence for employers is the loss of reputation which comes from being identified as an unfair employer.

Using this Self-Audit Questionnaire is one practical step that you can take towards ensuring that the minimum employment standards are being provided in your business.

How to Use this Questionnaire

The questionnaire is reasonably thorough. For example – as well as checking public holidays are provided you also check the calculation of the amount paid. So, be prepared to devote some time to completing it.

To help you complete the questionnaire there is an Employer Self-Audit Guide which provides information in relation to each area of the self-audit. If you have general questions in relation to the employment standards the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (the Ministry) also operates a contact centre on 0800 20 90 20.

The Self-Audit is carried out over your employment records, being wage, time and holiday records and employment agreements. The wage and time records you will require to complete this questionnaire will need to be detailed. For example - to manually check the annual leave calculation you will need to know which days were worked by the employees you are auditing and to check some public holiday entitlements you will also need to know what pattern of hours and days were worked ahead of the day in question. Summary reports of amounts paid will not be enough for you to complete the self-audit thoroughly.

Please complete the questionnaire in full and keep a copy of the questionnaire, the employment records and employment agreements that were audited. This means that if an employee asks, or a Labour Inspector visits, you will be able to show them the work you have done and explain how you arrived at your conclusions.

It is expected that where the Self-Audit reveals any failings in regard to employment standards that you will take action to correct any errors for all affected employees – including the payment of arrears looking back 6 years. Records of any corrective action taken must also be attached and filed with the completed Self-Audit Questionnaire.

This Questionnaire is divided into the following sections:

Getting started:

Business details

Scope of the Self-Audit

Completing the Audit

Section 1: Employment & Individual Employment Agreements

Section 2: Records

Section 3: Wages

Section 4: Holidays

Summary & Declaration

Summary of Self-Audit Results

Completion checklist

Declaration

Getting Started: Business Details

Legal name of the employer:
Trading name of your business:
Physical address of business
Postal address of business
(if different from physical)
Name and position of person carrying out the audit1 / Mobile number of person carrying out the audit:
DDI of person carrying out the audit:
e-mail:
Name and type of electronic payroll system (if used):
The name and contact details of the person who completes the function of your payroll system:
Date audit was completed:

Note:

1. This person must either be the employer, a director of the company that is the employer or be working closely with the employer entity so that everything they complete is with the legal employer’s consent and authority.

Getting Started: Scope of the Self-Audit

Apart from workplaces with a small number of staff it is not practical to audit every single record for every employee and so it is usual to select a representative group of employees and audit their records. It is important that a diverse group is selected to get a good cross-section of the different types of employees found in your business operation. For example, think about including employees across different roles, different work sites, different methods of payment (i.e. salary v wages) and those who have different arrangements for hours of work. Making good decisions here will give you a much fuller picture of how well you are complying with the employment standards and result in a stronger Self-Audit.

1. Create a full employee list

Begin by creating a list of all current employees and any that have ended their employment in the past 2 years. Use template 1 (which follows) to create this master list. This list is referred to as the full employee list.

2. Create an audit employee list

Next, select those employees that you intend to use as the focus for much of the self-audit. It will depend on the size and type of your business as to how many of these employee records you should include in your audit employee list. Getting a good cross section of the different types of employees in your business is important and at least a couple of examples for each selected type of employee brings more assurance to the self-audit.

In order to complete parts of this self-audit there are certain types of employees that will need to be included in your audit employee list. Some holiday calculations can only be checked properly for employees who have taken leave after one year of employment and it is only possible to check if holiday pay is calculated correctly at termination if the audit list includes employees who have ended their employment. Also, holiday entitlements can become more complicated to provide for when the working hours and days are variable. Therefore, ensure that your audit employee list includes at least the following employee types:

· A mixture of employees that have worked more than a year and under a year

· A mixture of employees that are current and those that have ended their employment (including some that have worked more than a year at termination)

· If you have employees on varying arrangements for their hours and terms of work then include a mix of these in the audit employee list including any:

o Employees who work standard hours and days

o Employees who work varying hours and days

o Employees on genuine fixed-term agreements

o Casual employees – meaning those with no expectation of on-going work beyond each short-term engagement where they choose to accept or refuse an offer of work each time

Use Template 2 (follows Template 1) to record your audit employee list.

Template 1: Full Employee List

Template 2: Audit Employee List

Section 1: Employment & Individual Employment

Agreements

1.1 Individual Employment Agreements (IEA)

Every employee must have a written employment agreement. If the agreements are Individual Employment Agreements there are mandatory elements that must be included in them.

Read the ‘Individual Employment Agreements’ section (1.1) of the Self-Audit Guide. Refer to your full employee list and complete the following:

1.1.1 / Does every employee not on a union collective agreement have an IEA in writing? / Yes No
If all of your employees are on union collective agreements go straight to section 1.2
1.1.2 / For every employee on your full employee list, have you retained signed copies of their IEA or the current terms and conditions of employment and copies of any intended IEA and given each a copy if requested? / Yes No
1.1.3 / Do all IEAs for employees audited contain the mandatory clauses / Yes No
If YES to all three questions above, attach copies of each employee’s IEA and go to Question 1.2.
1.1.4 / If you answered NO to ANY of the above questions and you have now made corrections attach evidence to this questionnaire showing the corrections made. / evidence attached
1.1.5 / If you have not made corrections please explain why not:

1.2 Rest Breaks and Meal Breaks

All employers are required to provide employees with rest and meal breaks but there are no specific rules about how long, or when, such breaks should be. The timing and length of breaks is something which should be agreed between employer and employee through good faith bargaining.

Read the ‘Rest Breaks and Meal Breaks’ section (1.2) of the Self-Audit Guide. Complete the following:

1.2.1 / Do you understand your employer obligations under section 69ZD of the Employment Relations Act 2000 about rest and meal breaks for your employees? / Yes No
1.2.2 / Are you confident that all your employees either take breaks according to the legislation, or where they do not you can justify any compensation provided or restrictions on breaks due to the nature of your business? / Yes No
If YES to the above two questions go to Question 1.3
1.2.3 / If NO to EITHER of the above questions have you now made sure you:
· understand your obligations, and
· corrected the provision of rest and meal breaks for your employees? / Yes No
1.2.4 / If you have made corrections please provide evidence of this, for example correspondence and memos with employees. / evidence attached
1.2.5 / If you have not made necessary corrections please explain why not:

1.3 Employment Status

Employment Standards apply only to employees. They do not apply to self-employed people such as contractors or genuine volunteers. If you have any contractors or volunteers it is important to be sure that you have their status correct.

Read the ‘Employment Status’ section (1.3) of the Self-Audit Guide and complete the following:

1.3.1 / Do you have workers who are not on the employee list because they are classified as self-employed or volunteers? / Yes No
If NO go to Question 1.4
If YES continue.
1.3.2 / If YES explain the reason these workers are defined as ‘self-employed’ or ‘volunteers’:

1.4 Employee Eligibility to Work in New Zealand

Under the Immigration Act 2009 employers must not employ foreign nationals who are not entitled to work in New Zealand or entitled to work for that employer.

Read the ‘Employee Eligibility to Work in New Zealand’ section (1.4) in the Self-Audit Guide, refer to your full employee list and complete the following:

1.4.1 / Do you have a process in place to check whether a prospective employee is entitled to work in New Zealand? / Yes No
1.4.2 / If NO, Have you now registered as an employer to use the Visa View service at www.visaview.govt.nz ? / Yes No
Attach evidence of your enrolment to use Visa View and a print out of two visa view searches using your audit employees as examples.
1.4.3 / Do you currently, or did you ever, employ temporary migrant employees? / Yes No
If NO go to Question 2.1
1.4.4 / Are all of your current temporary migrant employees working consistently with their visa conditions? / Yes No
1.4.5 / If NO, confirm that you have contacted Immigration New Zealand to resolve the situation:

Section 2: Records

The keeping of wage, time and holiday records is a fundamental business system. As well as being a requirement of employment law, strong record keeping protects employers in the time of dispute and enables you to be more certain that you are meeting employment standards.

Read the ‘Records’ section (2) of the Self-Audit Guide. Refer to the wages, time and holiday records for at least two employees from your audit employee list (over the entire duration of their employment) and complete the following:

Please note that ALL wage, time and holiday records must be retained for no less than 6 years from the time they are created.

2.1 / Do you keep a record of actual hours that your employees work each day? / Yes No
2.2 / Do you keep a record of the actual days that your employees work? / Yes No
2.3 / Do you keep a record of the wages and additional payments paid each pay day, including overtime, together with a method of calculation? / Yes No
2.4 / Do you keep a record of all accrued, taken, paid and cashed-up leave? / Yes No
2.5 / Do you keep a record of all hours worked on public holidays? / Yes No
2.6 / Do you keep a record of all payments to employees for unworked public holidays? / Yes No
2.7 / Do you keep a record of all accrued, taken, paid and cashed up alternative holidays? / Yes No
2.8 / Do you keep a record of all other leave accrued, taken and paid? e.g. sick, bereavement, leave without pay, parental leave. / Yes No
If YES to any or all of the above attach a copy of the records checked to this Self-Audit Questionnaire.
2.9 / If you answered NO to any of the above questions please explain why: / evidence attached
2.10 / If you answered NO to any of the above questions and you have now made corrections, attach evidence showing how the records are now amended. / evidence attached
2.11 / If you have not made any corrections please explain why not:

Section 3: Wages