Cook Islands Employment

"The Industrial Relations Act will improve the level of worker safety and modernize existing labor law in many areas," said Interior Secretary Mark Brown during the preparation of the Act. Since 1 July, all regulations of the Industrial Relations Act, which have been available since the beginning of 2013 and are financed from the two preceding households, have now entered into force.

This also includes enhanced entitlements for those who have been dismissed by their staff. As well as a dismissal deadline, the employer's reasons for dismissal must "also be linked to the employee's ability or behaviour or to a real restructuring of the company". The law no longer regards Sunday as a legal feast, and the various confessions in the Cook Islands, where the Sabbath cannot be celebrated on just one Sunday, have been recognised.

"They should have the right to keep their Sabbath without discrimination," Brown said. The Ui Ariki festivities held on Ui-Ariki Sunday last night gave all employees a bank holidays allowance if it was a working time. Previously, only employees who had been with the company for one months were eligible for benefits under the law.

Motherhood regulations covering government-funded remunerated motherhood holidays for both civil and commercial employees entered into force on 1 January this year. There is a $1,200 mother's motherhood kit, $5 basic salary, in excess of the $1,000 neonatal allowances that support the cost of bringing up a baby at parturition.