Employment Court decides how long to wait for Uber in our Covid-19 world
Dave Scott
A decision released by the New Zealand Employment Court on 19 March 2020 decides how long to wait for the attendance of a witness and representative for Uber in our Covid-19 world.
[17] At this stage, the insurmountable difficulty for Uber is the two-week isolation period required of visitors coming to New Zealand. The outcome, in my view, that best balances the interests of the parties in the current circumstances is to adjourn the proceeding for a set period that would allow the representative and witness to come to New Zealand, isolate in accordance with the current requirements, and then attend at Court. I acknowledge that having two key employees in isolation in New Zealand will create some issues for Uber. Those issues can be ameliorated by adjourning the hearing for not less than eight weeks. This timeframe would allow Uber to put in place mechanisms by which those people could maintain contact and engage with the work of Uber while they are in isolation.