Employment Agreements For Restaurant Managers

What should you put in a restaurant manager employment agreement in New Zealand? The reassuring answer is that you don't need to overcomplicate it, but you do need more than a generic employment contract.

A restaurant manager often sits right in the middle of your business. They're opening and closing, handling staff issues, dealing with suppliers, managing cash, responding to customer complaints and, in some venues, carrying alcohol licensing responsibilities.

That means your agreement should be clear about the practical parts of the role, not just the job title and salary. A well-drafted agreement helps you run smoother shifts, avoid misunderstandings and protect your business from day one.

Do I Need A Written Employment Agreement For A Restaurant Manager?

Yes, you need a written employment agreement for your restaurant manager if they're your employee. Under the Employment Relations Act 2000, every employee must have a written employment agreement.

For a restaurant or cafe manager, the agreement should cover the usual employment basics, plus the hospitality-specific details that often cause issues later.

Your agreement should usually include:

• The legal names of your business and the employee
• The job title, such as Restaurant Manager, Cafe Manager or Venue Manager
• Whether the role is full-time, part-time, fixed-term or casual, if casual is genuinely appropriate
• The place of work, especially if you operate more than one venue
• The manager's duties and reporting lines
• Hours of work, roster expectations and how changes to rosters will be handled
• Pay, benefits, deductions and any bonus or commission arrangements
• Leave entitlements under the Holidays Act 2003
• Confidentiality, business property and post-employment restraints or obligations
• A plain explanation of how employment relationship problems can be raised, including that most personal grievances must be raised within 90 days and sexual harassment personal grievances must be raised within 12 months.

If your manager is covered by a collective agreement, there are extra steps to work through. Most small hospitality businesses use individual employment agreements, but it's worth checking before you issue the contract.

Templates can be a helpful starting point, but they often miss the realities of hospitality. For example, a generic agreement may not deal properly with closing procedures, alcohol service, split shifts, public holiday work or who is responsible if cash is short at the end of the night.

What Duties Should A Restaurant Manager Employment Agreement Include?

Your agreement should describe the manager's core duties clearly, while still giving your business enough flexibility to run day to day. You don't need to list every tiny task, but you should avoid a vague one-line description like managing the restaurant.

A restaurant manager's duties often include:

• Opening and closing the venue
• Supervising front-of-house and, where relevant, back-of-house staff
• Preparing rosters and managing shift changes
• Training new staff on service standards, food safety and workplace policies
• Handling customer complaints and refunds within approved limits
• Managing bookings, table plans and service flow
• Ordering stock and dealing with suppliers
• Monitoring food safety, hygiene and health and safety processes
• Counting tills, reconciling EFTPOS and managing petty cash
• Reporting incidents, injuries, hazards and near misses
• Following alcohol licensing requirements if your venue sells alcohol

Say you run a busy cafe in Wellington and your manager is expected to open at 6 am, supervise junior staff, count the till, order milk and coffee beans, and deal with supplier deliveries. If the agreement only says the manager is responsible for customer service, you may struggle to insist that these operational tasks are part of the role.

It's also worth setting limits. For example, can the manager approve refunds up to a certain amount? Can they give staff a shift meal? Can they discount a customer's bill without your approval? These small details matter when you're not physically in the venue.

Licensing And Compliance Duties

If your restaurant sells alcohol, be careful about how you describe licensing responsibilities. Under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012, alcohol must generally be sold and supplied under the supervision of a properly appointed duty manager who holds a manager's certificate, unless a specific exception applies.

If you need your restaurant manager to act as a duty manager, the agreement and job description should say so. You should also cover what happens if their manager's certificate expires, is suspended, or they fail to meet licensing obligations during a shift.

Your agreement can also require the manager to follow your food safety plan, health and safety policies and any venue-specific procedures. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, your business has duties as a PCBU, and managers often play a practical role in making sure hazards are reported and safe systems are followed.

How Should Hours And Rosters Work For A Restaurant Manager?

Your agreement should set the manager's agreed hours and explain how rosters will be set, changed and communicated. Hospitality hours can move around, but that doesn't mean the agreement can be unclear.

Under the Employment Relations Act 2000, employment agreements must include agreed hours of work or an indication of the arrangements relating to hours. This includes:

• The number of guaranteed hours, if any
• The days of the week the employee may work
• The start and finish times, or how those times will be set
• Any flexibility needed for evenings, weekends and public holidays

For restaurant managers, you might need coverage across lunch service, dinner service, stocktake, staff meetings and special events. The agreement can allow reasonable roster changes, but it's better to set a fair process than rely on informal texts the night before.

Availability Clauses

If you want your manager to be available for work outside their guaranteed hours, you may need a valid availability provision. These provisions are regulated under the Employment Relations Act 2000.

In simple terms, if you require your manager to be available for extra shifts, after-hours calls or last-minute cover, your agreement should explain:

• The guaranteed hours of work
• The extra availability you expect
• The genuine business reasons for needing that availability
• Reasonable compensation for that availability

Without a proper availability clause, you may not be able to require your manager to be on call or accept extra work. This is especially relevant in hospitality, where last-minute sickness, no-shows and large bookings can quickly change staffing needs.

Breaks During Busy Service

Your manager is still entitled to rest and meal breaks. The exact breaks depend on the length of the work period, but as a guide, a 6 to 8 hour shift usually includes two paid 10-minute rest breaks and one unpaid 30-minute meal break.

Busy service periods don't remove these obligations. If breaks are difficult to take at set times, your agreement and workplace procedures should explain how breaks are managed fairly across the shift.

Do I Have To Pay Overtime To A Restaurant Manager?

It depends on what your agreement says, but you must still make sure your manager is paid at least the legal minimum for all hours worked. New Zealand law doesn't automatically require overtime rates for all extra hours, but the agreement can create that obligation.

This is a common issue for salaried restaurant managers. A manager may be paid an annual salary, but then regularly work 50 or 55 hours a week during busy periods. If the salary is meant to cover reasonable additional hours, the agreement should say that clearly.

Even then, you need to check the numbers. If you divide the salary by the actual hours worked, the manager must not fall below the current minimum wage. Minimum wage rates are updated from time to time, usually annually, so you should check the current MBIE rate when setting pay and reviewing salaries.

Your agreement should answer these practical overtime questions:

• Are reasonable additional hours included in the salary?
• What counts as unreasonable additional hours?
• Does the manager need approval before working extra hours?
• Will overtime be paid, given as time off in lieu, or treated as included in salary?
• How should the manager record extra hours worked?

Public holidays are different. If your manager works on a public holiday, they're generally entitled to be paid at least time and a half for the hours worked. If the public holiday would otherwise be a working day for them, they're also generally entitled to an alternative holiday.

Can I Use A Trial Period For A Restaurant Manager?

Yes, you may be able to use a 90-day trial period for a restaurant manager, but only if you set it up correctly before they start work. Trial periods in New Zealand are strict, and a small drafting or timing mistake can make the clause invalid.

A valid trial period usually needs to:

• Be in a written employment agreement
• Be agreed and signed before the employee starts work
• Be for 90 days or less
• State that you may dismiss the employee during the trial period
• State that the employee can't bring a personal grievance or other legal proceedings about the dismissal, subject to the limits in the Employment Relations Act 2000
• Only be used for someone who hasn't previously been employed by your business

Trial periods can be useful in hospitality because a manager's performance is often tested quickly across service standards, staff leadership, cash handling and pressure situations. Still, they aren't a shortcut around good hiring practices.

You should also think about whether a probationary period is more suitable. A probationary period can be used to assess performance, but it doesn't remove the employee's ability to raise a personal grievance if the process is handled poorly. The right option depends on your business, the seniority of the role and how much risk you want to manage upfront.

If you're using a trial period, give the candidate enough time to read the agreement and get advice before signing. Handing them the contract on their first shift is a common mistake and can cause problems later.

What Should The Agreement Say About Cash, Keys And Confidential Information?

Your agreement should clearly set out the manager's responsibilities for business property, money and confidential information. Restaurant managers often have access to things that other staff don't, so clarity matters.

You may want to cover:

• Keys, alarm codes and security procedures
• Till floats, cash-up steps and banking processes
• EFTPOS refunds, chargebacks and void transactions
• Stock control, wastage and supplier accounts
• Passwords for booking systems, delivery platforms and social media
• Customer information, loyalty programmes and booking data
• Recipes, menus, pricing, margins and supplier terms

Be careful with deductions from wages. You generally can't just deduct money from your manager's pay because the till is short or stock has gone missing. Any deduction needs to meet the rules under the Wages Protection Act 1983, including having proper written consent where required, and you should handle these issues carefully.

Confidentiality and post-employment restrictions are also important. Your manager may know your margins, staff pay rates, supplier discounts, marketing plans and customer lists. A confidentiality clause helps make it clear that this information can't be used outside your business or shared with a future employer.

If your manager helps create menus, training documents, photos, videos or promotional material, think about intellectual property too. Copyright usually belongs to the person who creates the work unless an exception or agreement applies, so it's sensible to have a clause confirming what your business owns and can continue using.

Should I Hire A Restaurant Manager As A Contractor Instead?

Usually, no, not if the person is working inside your business like an employee. A restaurant manager who works regular shifts, follows your systems, manages your staff and represents your venue is very likely to be an employee in substance.

Calling someone a contractor doesn't decide their legal status, even if you use a contractor agreement. The real question is how the relationship works in practice. If you get this wrong, you may face claims for unpaid employment entitlements, holiday pay, minimum wage shortfalls and tax or compliance issues.

The Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026 introduced a contractor gateway test for certain working arrangements. This can help some businesses assess whether a worker can be treated as a contractor, but it isn't a free pass to label core staff as contractors. For a hands-on restaurant manager, you should get tailored advice before going down that path, including advice on any contractor agreement.

In most cases, an employment agreement is the safer and more accurate document for a restaurant manager. If you need flexibility, that flexibility should usually be built into the employment agreement through carefully drafted hours, duties, roster and availability clauses.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

The most common mistake is using a generic hospitality employment contract that doesn't reflect how your venue actually operates. Your agreement should match your rosters, responsibilities and risk points.

Watch out for these traps:

• No clear hours: If the agreement doesn't explain guaranteed hours and roster arrangements, you may struggle to manage availability and overtime expectations.
• Vague duties: A manager's role should cover operational, staff, cash handling and compliance responsibilities.
• Invalid trial period: The agreement must be signed before the manager starts work, and the clause must meet the Employment Relations Act 2000 requirements.
• Salary set and forgotten: Review salary against actual hours worked and current minimum wage rates.
• Public holiday errors: Hospitality businesses often trade on public holidays, so make sure time and a half and alternative holiday rules are handled correctly.
• No confidentiality or IP clauses: Your manager may access valuable business information and create material your venue needs to keep using.
• Ignoring policies: Your agreement should work alongside clear policies for food safety, alcohol service, health and safety, harassment, social media and cash handling.

Good paperwork won't replace good management, but it gives you a much stronger foundation. It also makes it easier to have clear conversations when something changes, like a new dinner service, a liquor licence condition, or a manager moving from part-time to full-time hours.

Key Takeaways

• A restaurant manager employment agreement should be tailored to hospitality operations, not copied from a generic office role.
• Set clear duties for rostering, supervision, cash handling, stock, customer complaints, licensing and compliance.
• Be specific about hours, rosters, availability, breaks, overtime and public holiday work.
• A 90-day trial period can be useful, but it must be written, signed before work starts and drafted correctly.
• Salary arrangements still need to satisfy minimum wage rules when you look at the manager's actual hours.
• Confidentiality, intellectual property and business property clauses help protect the value of your venue.

If you'd like help with your restaurant manager employment agreement, rostering and overtime clauses, trial period wording or hospitality workplace policies, you can reach us at 0800 002 184 or team@sprintlaw.co.nz for a free, no-obligations chat.