Business

By Marty Sharpe of The Employment Relations Authority said Japanese Car Parts Ltd must pay a former employee more than $50,000. Photo: SUPPLIED A large Auckland car parts company must pay a former employee more than $50,000 after its director unfairly targeted her. Courtney Brooker resigned from Japanese Car Parts Ltd after saying she "simply couldn't take it anymore". Among numerous other breaches, the company told Brooker to take lunch breaks at her desk and made her come to work to prove she was ill. A young worker who was told to take meal breaks at her desk and to come to work to prove she was sick will be paid $50,290 by the company that constructively dismissed her. Courtney Brooker, 21, was employed by Japanese Car Parts Limited (JCP) in Auckland from 1 Au...

Photo: JOAN CROS / NurPhoto via AFP McDonald's employees are running into trouble when attempting to receive money owed to them, Unite Union says. The fast food giant has started paying out holiday pay owed to tens of thousands of staff almost five years since it agreed to. In November 2019, Unite Union announced it had reached a deal with McDonald's to go back 10 years to reimburse employees over a payroll botch-up. McDonald's was one of hundreds of companies caught up by payroll systems incorrectly calculating holiday pay. On its website this week, the company said it had been given approval by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to begin remediation. It said current and former staff who worked during the remediation period between 2009 and 2019 should go to an online p...

Photo: RNZ "Heads should roll" at the Reserve Bank if it decides to move the official cash rate this month, when economic data has broadly moved in line with its forecasts, one economist says. Calls have been heating up for a cut this month as the economy looks increasingly weak. Data on Wednesday showed the unemployment rate hit 4.6 percent in the June quarter, just under economist forecasts of 4.7 percent but in line with the Reserve Bank's most recent prediction. Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said when the Reserve Bank forecast that level of unemployment for June, it was alongside interest rate forecasts that did not include a drop in the official cash rate (OCR) until August 2025. "Unemployment has done roughly what they thought, inflation is slightly better than they though...

Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has confirmed some jobs could be "significantly impacted" by a change proposal kicking off on Thursday. But it has stopped short of confirming whether more roles could be disestablished. So far it has already announced nearly 350 jobs are gone, or are proposed to go. On Thursday it will begin consulting on proposed changes to Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery's Market Integrity branch, which "delivers world leading regulation to protect the fairness and integrity of markets in Aotearoa New Zealand", branch general manager Sanjai Raj said. "We are proposing some changes to how the Market Integrity branch is structured and to the way we deliver our services for the public of Aotearoa New Zealand," he said. "Those w...

The lease of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei's downtown Auckland land comes up for review next year. Photo: 123RF Some inner-city Auckland apartment owners may have their "heads in the sand" about the possible implications of a ground rent review next year, one real estate firm is warning. The lease of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei's downtown Auckland land at the former Railway Lands, Te Tōangaroa, comes up for review in August next year. The leasehold terms included a ground-rent free period until 2011, and then reviews at seven-year intervals. It is the site of many apartment buildings, including the Scene buildings. Scott Dunn, of City Sales, said his firm had listed 11 or 12 properties on the leasehold land in recent weeks. "Some sales will go for under $100,000, some over. We don't have anything lined u...

By Dearbail Jordan and João da Silva, BBC News business reporters Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on Tuesday in New York City. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP US shares opened higher on Tuesday local time as an uneasy calm returned to global markets after days of sharp falls. The technology-heavy Nasdaq, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 all saw early gains. It followed subdued trading in the UK and Europe with London's FTSE 100 initially rising before falling back. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock index jumped by 10.2 percent, or 3217 points in its biggest one-day gain in points, after the previous day's plummet. The stock market rout began on Friday following disappointing US employment figures for July wh...

By Dearbail Jordan and João da Silva, BBC News business reporters Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on Tuesday in New York City. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP US shares opened higher on Tuesday local time as an uneasy calm returned to global markets after days of sharp falls. The technology-heavy Nasdaq, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 all saw early gains. It followed subdued trading in the UK and Europe with London's FTSE 100 initially rising before falling back. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock index jumped by 10.2 percent, or 3217 points in its biggest one-day gain in points, after the previous day's plummet. The stock market rout began on Friday following disappointing US employment figures for July wh...

File image. Photo: 123rf Fletcher Building says class action proceedings have been filed in the Federal Court of Australia over leaky pipes manufactured by its subsidiary, Iplex Pipelines Australia. Fletcher said it will make no further comment on the action taken by law firm Baker McKenzie on behalf of people who bought the polybutylene pipes, which later developed leaks. Fletcher previously stated the problem with leaky pipes installed in Perth, Australia was a result of installation errors and not a manufacturing problem. Iplex intended to defend the proceedings. Source link

Japanese stocks rebounded today after suffering their biggest single day fall since 1987. Photo: AFP / Tetsuji Nojuchi Share markets appeared a bit calmer on Tuesday, with S&P Futures up and the Nikkei recovering 9 percent. But local commentators are warning there are likely to be bumps ahead for markets and investors. Markets around the world suffered on Monday due to concerns about the US economy, technology stocks, weaker-than-expected earnings from some countries and the prospect of rising Japanese interest rates. "A fear factor crept in rather than anything substantially changing overnight," said Devon Funds Management head of retail Greg Smith. "It was sort of related to the Yen carry trade - the carry trade has been to borrow yen at low rates and invest in tech stocks, which ...

Northport had applied for a raft of resource consents related to a major expansion. Photo: Supplied Northland's port company is appealing a decision to refuse consent for a major expansion, saying the commissioners made a series of errors when they ruled it would have serious adverse effects on cultural and recreational values. Northport had applied to the Northland Regional and Whangārei District Councils for a raft of resource consents, including for an almost 12-hectare reclamation, a 250-metre wharf extension, and 1.7 million cubic metres of dredging. The container terminal would have been built between the existing port and Channel Infrastructure, a fuel import facility, where there is currently a publicly accessible beach. Northport has lodged an appeal in the Environment Court...