Under the Holidays Act 2003 employers are required to maintain a wage, time and leave record for each of their employees (waged and salaried). In practice, the best way to achieve this is by keeping timesheets for all employees on farm.
Immigration advisors are now actively seeking this information when making an assessment of work permit applications and it reduces the headache if a labour inspectorate comes to visit.
Having information on the hours worked at your farm can assist with workforce planning and overall attractiveness of the workplace. Once hours are known you can assess the possibilities of reducing long hours, create more efficient farm processes and ensure you are keeping everyone safe.
If keeping timesheets are just part of “the way we do things on farm” employees will respect the process and understand it can be part of good people management. Overall, it gives employers a sense of confidence that they know what’s happening at their place and can use this to improve farming practices.
Do you know that all employees are entitled to be paid the minimum wage for each hour they work within each week?
Seasonal averaging, whereby employers average out pay across a 12 month period, with the intention that the high hours/week worked during calving will be offset by working less hours/week in the low season, is not allowed in relation to minimum wage. Each hour must be paid at least the minimum wage.
This may mean that top-up payments are required, so employees earn at least the minimum wage during busy seasons on farm.
Keep up to date with the current minimum wage by visiting the Employment New Zealand website.
- To learn more about what records you must keep for an employee click here.
- For user-friendly timesheet templates click here.
What is time recording and how do I do it?
Time recording is where the employee enters hours worked into a system the employer has in place. The employer then reviews the hours, signs them off and ensures the employee is paid correctly. Time recording can be paper based, via app or computer/systems and ideally will be interlinked directly to a payroll system.
The different systems have different benefits. Before deciding what to implement consider what information you need, how you could save time linking this to your payroll system and what your staff are mostly likely to use easily.
Tips from farmers
We went out to farmers and they gave us some great pointers in how to implement and maintain a time recording system.