Lawyer gives a warning on jobs for the family

Many farming families fear that new employment laws will stop them dumping an existing worker to make a job available to returning offspring.

"Townies" would not see such an action as reasonable, says employment law expert Michael Smith, who has been running nationwide seminars for Federated Farmers on the Employment Relations Act, which takes effect next month.

One common query was whether the act would stop a family member returning home to work on the farm, if it meant getting rid of an existing worker.

"The feeling at these seminars is family should have first call on the job. But ... as an urban person, I wouldn't have thought it constituted a reasonable basis for termination of an employee's contract."

Mr Smith warned farmers looking to take an "inventive approach" to get round the act that if a dispute ended in court, the court would be looking after the employee's interests.

The problem arises because farmers will mostly have to give their workers indefinite-term employment contracts instead of the fixed-term contracts possible under the old Employment Contracts Act.

- NZPA