Five former dancers who worked at a Wellington strip club have won their case, after arguing they were treated as employees despite being employed as contractors.
The former dancers told the Employment Court that because the club considered them to be contractors, they missed out on entitlements such as annual and sick leave, had to pay their own taxes and were not able to work for other clubs or agencies.
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The workers said in practice, they were treated as employees and Judge MS King agreed.
"When the plaintiffs commenced work with Calendar Girls, there was a clear common intention to do so as independent contractors. However, the evidence demonstrates an inequality of bargaining power between the parties, which points away from the plaintiffs being in business on their own account and requires consideration of how the relationship operated in practice."
You must be enrolled to vote before the election. If you are not enrolled you cannot vote.
The last day to enrol is the 25th of October.
Unlike previous elections, you can NOT enrol and vote at any voting place, including on election day.
The current government changed this, and it is a change that many people, particularly first-time and younger voters may not be aware of.
Take a few minutes to check in with your friends, whānau, work colleagues, classmates, teammates, and anyone else in your network. If they are not enrolled, encourage them to do it now.
You can enrol to vote if you'll be 18 years old on or before 7 November. That means if you turn 18 after enrolments close on 25 October, but on or before Election Day, you're eligible to vote, and enrolling early is your ticket to being able to vote in the election this year.
While you're at it, it's also a great opportunity to check that your enrolment details are up to date.
Jean Batten, c. 1934 (Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/2-046051-F)
Jean Batten left for New Zealand from Kent, England, at 4.20 a.m. on 5 October 1936. Despite the early hour, a large media contingent gathered to see her off; Batten was already famous for her successful solo flights from England to Australia in May 1934, and to South America in November 1935.
Batten had installed two extra petrol tanks in her low-winged monoplane, a Percival (Vega) Gull. But to reach Australia she still had to land and refuel at numerous locations across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. En route she slept little, flying day and night, sometimes in bad weather. She arrived in Darwin in 5 days 21 hours – 24 hours faster than the previous record-holder, Jimmy Broadbent.
News of the record was front-page news around the world. Batten continued on her way, arriving in Sydney on 13 October. While she had a welcome rest and waited for the weather over the Tasman Sea to improve, some tried to dissuade her from continuing on to New Zealand. But Batten decided to proceed.
Before taking off from Richmond Aerodrome, Sydney, at approximately 6.30 a.m. (New Zealand time) on 16 October, she declared that no one should look for her if she went down at sea. Outwardly fearless, she later confessed that she almost ‘lost her nerve’ during this final leg. To her relief she finally recognised a rocky island and a few minutes later was over New Plymouth. She arrived at Auckland’s Mangere Aerodrome at about 5 p.m., 10½ hours after leaving Sydney, and was greeted by a crowd of 6000.
Batten then set off to tour the country by car and train, admitting that she was weary of air travel for the time being. In fact, she was both physically and mentally exhausted by her odyssey, which had taken a total of 11 days 45 minutes. The tour was eventually called off in Christchurch and Batten spent much of November resting at Franz Josef Glacier at the government’s expense. In October 1937 she made a return flight from Sydney to England – her last long-distance flight.
A mother farewells her son, October 1914 (Auckland War Memorial Museum, MS 20003/72)
Thousands of Wellingtonians rose before dawn and crowded vantage points around the harbour to watch as 10 grey-painted troopships, escorted by four warships, sailed to war.
These ships carried the Main Body of, and the First Reinforcements for, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force – around 8500 men, as well as nearly 4000 horses.
This was the second major departure of New Zealand troops for the First World War, following the 1400-strong Samoa advance force which had left two months earlier, also from Wellington.
The October departure was the culmination of a series of farewells. After war broke out in early August 1914, men from around the country volunteered in large numbers. Those accepted were sent to mobilisation camps in each of the four military districts: Alexandra Park in Auckland, Awapuni racecourse in Palmerston North, Addington (later Sockburn) Park in Christchurch and Tahuna Park in Dunedin. As they left home for the camps, their families, workmates and communities farewelled them at community halls, theatres and hotels, railway stations and wharves.
In September, the four contingents were farewelled at civic events in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Up to 30,000 people attended Wellington’s farewell at Newtown Park on 24 September, when schools and many businesses closed for the day.
Ships carrying the Canterbury and Otago troops entered Wellington Harbour that afternoon, expecting to depart with the local contingent and rendezvous with the Auckland transports in the Tasman Sea.
Then, suddenly, the plan changed. The authorities were worried about the weakness of the escort – the obsolete light cruisers HMS Philomel and HMS Psyche – given that the whereabouts of the warships of Germany’s East Asia Squadron was unknown. Pending the arrival of more powerful Allied warships, the Aucklanders were recalled to port, while the Canterbury and Otago contingents (and their horses) disembarked in Wellington. Training resumed. In the evenings the men were entertained with concerts and other activities organised by local communities. On 10 October the Auckland contingent sailed for Wellington, where it arrived four days later.
Thanks to the arrival of the armoured cruiser HMS Minotaur and the Imperial Japanese Navy’s battlecruiser Ibuki, the convoy was finally ready to depart. On 14-15 October the troops and horses reboarded their ships, which anchored out in the harbour; early on the morning of the 16th, the convoy set sail.
Frank Morton described the scene:
Forty-eight days later – after stopovers in Hobart; Albany in Western Australia, where they joined a convoy of 28 Australian troopships; and Colombo – the New Zealanders landed in Egypt. When they had set sail they had assumed they were bound for Europe to fight the Germans. Now, their initial role would be to help protect the Suez Canal against attack by the forces of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire, which had entered the war while the convoy was on the high seas.
Over the next four years a further 90,000 New Zealanders would depart for war. Those who sailed on 16 October 1914 remain the largest single group ever to leave these shores at one time.
