Industry Updates – June 2019

Anna RobertsonClubland Newsletter

Employment Law Changes
In the last issue of Clubland we talked about the changes to employment law. These have now all taken effect. They are covered well in this article by Buddle Findlay.

So what now?
Employers should check employment offer letters, employment agreements, policies and processes to ensure they are consistent with the law changes set out above. More generally, staff members should be notified of any changes that may affect them, for instance, the introduction of domestic violence leave.

Health & Safety
We recently conducted a survey of all clubs to gain a better understanding of how they are managing the changes to health and safety legislation and the requirements for clubs. Thank you to everyone who completed this, we had an excellent response from across the country.
Responses have shown that clubs fall into one of three general categories:

  1. Not yet meeting minimum requirements – 35%
  2. Meeting minimum requirements and looking to continue improving across a range of areas – 55%
  3. Confident in all aspects of health and safety with no further support required – 10%

The information we have gathered will help the Relationship Manager Team to put together some general support for clubs as well as tailor support to specifically suit the needs of individual clubs.
Your Relationship Manager will be contacting you in due course, however, if you would like support urgently please let them know.
A number of people completing the survey had not yet accessed or were not aware of our health and safety resources. These are available on the Club portal and include a range of resources, guidelines and templates.

Notifiable Events – what to report
It is very important to remember that Clubs must report any notifiable events to both WorkSafe NZ and Gymnastics NZ as soon as possible after occurring.
Here is some information about how to determine whether something is notifiable. Remember you can always contact WorkSafe to check.

Police Vetting
A reminder that police vetting needs to be re-done every two years. For many, this could be coming up soon, if it hasn’t already done so.
Police vetting is a legal requirement if your club is delivering to school or OSCAR groups. If not, it is strongly recommended that all clubs carry out safety checking of all staff and volunteers who are coaching children in your club. As of 2018, this became a Gymnastics NZ requirement for affiliated clubs and this is likely to be something that funders increasingly look for in the future.
Read also the process of police vetting, also available on the Club portal.