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Employment Act

The Employment Act 2000 replaced the Employment Contracts Act 1991. The objective of the act is to build productive employment relationships between employers, employees and unions.

The premise of “Good Faith” underpins the whole act. Good faith requires you, your employees and unions to deal with each other fairly at all times. No one should mislead or deceive another person and you must consult with employees about any plans for changes to the business that will have an impact on employees such as contracting out, selling the business or redundancy

The largest portion of the act deals with unions and good faith bargaining.

Unions are legally recognised and have the exclusive rights to bargain for, and be party to collective employment agreements. Any employee can join a union if they wish but don’t have to and a group of 15 employees can set up their own union. There are rules allowing union representatives to enter the work force and have paid time off to attend union meetings.

Striking is allowed under certain circumstances but you are entitled to bring in employees to cover the work for valid health and safety reasons and your existing employees who are not on strike can also agree to do this work.

Existing collective agreements apply to all new employees for 30 days, giving the new employee an opportunity to decide whether they wish to join a union. If not, then they are entitled to an individual employment agreement.

Every new employee on an individual agreement must be given a copy of their intended agreement; advised to seek independent advice, be allowed to get that advice and be given five working days to achieve this. Not doing this is a breach of “good faith” and both penalties and unfair bargaining provisions will apply.

Fixed term individual agreements can only be entered into for genuine reasons. You can not use them to limit the rights of an employee and you must give the reason for conclusion of the employment, when and how it will end.

Essentially the Employment Relations Act requires that you behave in a procedurally fair and equitable manner towards all your employees. This includes best practice for the hiring and firing of employees, the manner in which you manage them and the working environment you provide.

Many employers see the Act as being unfairly weighted towards the employee. I would encourage a more positive outlook. See it as template for best practice human resources, one that will increase the loyalty, productivity and longevity of your staff.

For further information on various aspects of the act which directly impact on your business view the rest of this site or contact info@hughesdirect.com
Click on www.legislation.co.nz to get a copy of the Employment Relations Act.

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