Can my employer round my hours? Rounding and unpaid minutes in NZ

Every minute worked is paid

The Minimum Wage Act 1983 entitles you to be paid for your work at no less than the minimum rate, whatever your employment agreement says. Employment New Zealand says an employee must be paid at least the minimum wage for every hour worked, and that applies to overtime as much as to normal hours. The starting-out and training rates are $19.16 an hour.

If you are paid by the hour at more than the minimum, your agreement sets the rate, and your wages are worked out from the hours you work. Your employer must keep a wages and time record showing the hours you worked each day in a pay period and the pay for those hours (Employment Relations Act 2000, section 130), and records detailed enough to show you received your minimum entitlements (section 4B). If you are salaried, our article on unpaid overtime and your real hourly rate covers the same rule.

Rounding, and which way it goes

Many clock-in systems round times, often to the nearest 5, 10 or 15 minutes. Neither the Minimum Wage Act nor the Wages Protection Act mentions rounding, and Employment New Zealand's guidance on hours of work does not either. So the question is simply whether you were paid for the time you worked.

Which way the rounding goes matters. Rounded to the nearest quarter hour, a clock-in at 8.53am becomes 9am, and 7 minutes of work disappear. Rounding that only ever favours your employer, with starts rounded later and finishes rounded earlier, takes minutes off every shift. Rounding both ways may come out even, but only your own times will show it. Lateness rules work the same way: if you are 2 minutes late and docked 15, you worked 13 of those minutes.

A few minutes add up. This worked example is arithmetic, at the adult minimum wage:

The six-year figure uses today's rate throughout, and on a higher rate the loss is larger. Six years is how far back a claim for unpaid wages can reach.

Starting early, handovers and closing up

Employment New Zealand says there is no strict legal definition of work. An activity may be work if it puts constraints on your freedom, places responsibilities on you or benefits your employer, and it generally is work if it is an integral part of the main job. Its examples include after-hours team meetings, opening and closing businesses, cleaning and tidying up, on-the-job training and product familiarisation. In one, a sales assistant required to attend a 30-minute meeting before the shop opens each day must be paid for it.

In practice:

• Told to arrive early to set up, count a till or take a handover: on that test, this is likely to be work.
• Staying after closing to clean, cash up or lock up: opening, closing and tidying up are on Employment New Zealand's own list.
• Arriving early by choice and waiting until your shift starts: on the same test, not usually work, as long as nobody asks you to start.

If the roster says 9am but the job starts at 8.50am, the record should say 8.50am.

Deductions and the Wages Protection Act

The Wages Protection Act 1983 says that when wages become payable, your employer must pay the entire amount without deduction (section 4). A deduction is allowed only for a lawful purpose, with your written consent or at your written request (section 5), and never if it is unreasonable (section 5A). Consent can come from a general deductions clause in your employment agreement, but your employer must consult you before making a specific deduction under it. Employment New Zealand adds that a deduction is likely to be unreasonable if you had no control over the situation.

Trimmed minutes skip all of that. They rarely show as a deduction on a payslip; the hours paid are simply fewer, which makes them easy to miss.

Checking your hours against your pay

For a few weeks, write down your actual start and finish times and your breaks, on the day, and compare them with the hours on each payslip. Our guide to keeping your own timesheet sets out what to record and how to ask for your employer's records.

In jobtracker.co.nz, Your Timesheets is free for logging hours, keeps your start and finish times to the minute without rounding them, and keeps each earlier version of an entry when you change it. If you hand a week's hours to your manager, you can mark the week sent, and any change made afterwards shows beside the stamp.

Your employer's own record is the other half. Under section 130(2), your employer must give you access to your wages and time record, or a copy or extract, immediately when you ask, covering up to the last six years. If the hours are right but the rate feels low, our article on whether you are being underpaid covers comparing your pay with the market.

What to do if minutes go missing

• Raise it in writing with your manager or payroll: the dates, your times, the times you were paid for, and the difference. Ask for the minutes to be paid.
• Get advice. Employment New Zealand is on 0800 20 90 20, and your union can help if you belong to one.
• Report it. The Labour Inspectorate enforces the Minimum Wage Act and the Wages Protection Act, and monitors wage deductions and record-keeping. Reports go through Employment New Zealand's online form.
• Recover the arrears. You can claim unpaid wages in the Employment Relations Authority, even if you accepted the lower pay at the time or agreed otherwise (section 131), within six years (section 142). If your employer failed to keep or produce a proper wages and time record, and that made an accurate claim harder, the Authority may accept your hours as proved unless your employer proves them wrong (section 132).

Keep your hours on record