Tenancy and work a rum combo if things go wrong

‘‘Residential service tenancy and accommodation’’ is a bit of a handful for Google. In fact I’m pretty sure my computer wanted to scream when I kept re-entering the phrase. It doesn’t come up.

What does come up in the search result are the two pieces of legislation that have been used in a combined effort to write the tenancy clause in an employment contract for a farmworker.

My aim is not to tell you how I see it, but to simply point out some of the statements within these clauses that may be contributing to some confusion when it comes to ‘‘renting’’ your farm cottage to your ‘‘employee’’.

The two pieces of legislation are the Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995 and the Residential Tenancies Act 1986.

The first of these is fairly self-explanatory, albeit long and boring, but the facts are there that apply to any work environment.

It states the requirement for the employer to supply clean drinking water, the responsibilities of employees to be punctual, drug-free and abide by the health and safety requirements enforceable by not only their employer but also by the law.

However, when you read (carefully) the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 and its updates, you will find that the two could marry up a bit better than they do, especially when taking the 90-day-trial clause into consideration.

You have to charge rent to your employee, it is taxed and deducted from their wage before they get it in their bank account – easy enough.

Have you requested a bond off them for the house, in the event of any damage being done during the tenancy period? If the answer to that is yes, that’s cool, because again that is all part of being a landlord.

Have you lodged it with the Tenancy Tribunal within the required time frame? You have 23 days to do so, because we know it’s illegal not to, don’t we?

As a landlord, you have the right to perform house inspections, within the times stated in the contract, and you always give the appropriate amount of notice, without being unreasonable.

Then, you decide that you want to enforce your option of the 90-day trial for your tenant because he/she is also your employee.

Now, it quite clearly states that you have to give the employee 14 days to move from the premises. And that’s okay because it says so in the clause that is titled Service Tenancy in the Residential Tenancy Act 1986.

To behave like a landlord and enforce your rights as an employer in one swift move is your right. And to think I was starting to hear that it is all in favour of the employee these days.

When you start a farm job you are entering into a ‘‘service tenancy’’, but maybe if employers want the 90-day rule to stay, the tenancy classification should be changed to ‘‘periodic tenancy’’.

Service means ‘‘a set of actions or solutions that are put in place or are performed to provide a repeatable and consistent set of outcomes, deliverables and performance for people, organisations and systems that represent consumers or beneficiaries of such results’’.

Periodic means ‘‘appearing or occurring at intervals. Regular, periodical, recurrent, repeated, cyclical, cyclic, seasonal (my italics), intermittent, spasmodic, odd’’.

Okay, I am going to give you my opinion. It’s bollocks! As the employer you get to just say: ‘‘Aw hey, I’m going to let you go, the 90-day trial is going to be enforced, you have two weeks to move your home and family out of the house and start again.’’

I do believe there is a place for the 90-day rule.

It wasn’t around when I had staff in my salons and, boy oh boy, you farmers think your employees can do some damage to your business. But it’s too late when some ill-trained hairdresser uses your scissors way before she used her ears with someone’s crowning glory. Word gets around really quick.

If you lost your temper and pointed to the door with your cutting comb, at least they didn’t have to move house as well as looking for a new job.

Is it really OK to be giving people 14 days to move their families because you didn’t ask the right questions at the interview?

So how about we have a ‘‘periodic tenancy’’ for those who have staff come and go ‘‘periodically’’, which gives these employees 21 days before they have to vacate the property and move their family on.

It’s not much but it will make a big difference.

Louise Giltrap is a Northland dairy farmer who loves hearing from readers. gsgiltrap@xtra.co.nz