67GCancellation of shifts

1. This section applies in relation to an employee who is required under the employee’s employment agreement to undertake shift work.

2. The employer must not cancel a shift of the employee unless the employee’s employment agreement specifies—

3. a reasonable period of notice that must be given before the cancellation of a shift; and
4. reasonable compensation that must be paid to the employee if the employer cancels a shift of the employee without giving the specified notice.

5. In cancelling a shift of an employee, the employer must—

6. give the employee the notice specified in the employee’s employment agreement under subsection (2)(a); or
7. if that notice is not given, pay to the employee the compensation specified in the employee’s employment agreement under subsection (2)(b).

8. The period of notice specified under subsection (2)(a) must be determined having regard to all relevant factors, including—

9. the nature of the employer’s business, including the employer’s ability to control or foresee the circumstances that have given rise to the proposed cancellation; and
10. the nature of the employee’s work, including the likely effect of the cancellation on the employee; and
11. the nature of the employee’s employment arrangements, including whether there are agreed hours of work in the employee’s employment agreement and, if so, the number of guaranteed hours of work (if any) included among those agreed hours.

12. Compensation specified under subsection (2)(b) must be determined having regard to all relevant matters, including the following:

13. the period of notice specified in the employee’s employment agreement under subsection (2)(a):
14. the remuneration that the employee would have received for working the shift:
15. whether the nature of the work requires the employee to incur any costs in preparing for the shift.

16. Without limiting subsection (5), an employee is entitled to what he or she would have earned for working a shift if—

17. the shift is cancelled and the employee’s employment agreement does not comply with this section; or
18. the shift is cancelled, but the employee has not been notified of the cancellation until the commencement of the shift; or
19. the remainder of a shift is cancelled after the shift has begun.

20. If an employee whose shift is cancelled is entitled, under his or her employment agreement or under subsection (6), to the remuneration that he or she would have earned for working the shift, that remuneration is a part of the employee’s ordinary weekly pay and relevant daily pay for the purposes of sections 8 and 9 of the Holidays Act 2003.

21. To avoid doubt, nothing in this section enables an employer to cancel an employee’s shift if that cancellation would breach the employee’s employment agreement.

22. In this section, shift means a period of work performed in a system of work in which periods of work—

23. are continuous or effectively continuous; and
24. may occur at different times on different days of the week.