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Disclosure Requests in New Zealand Employment Law: Principles and Key Case Law for Employers
Disclosure is a fundamental aspect of fair process in New Zealand employment law. Whether an employer is conducting a disciplinary investigation, managing a performance process, considering restructuring, or responding to a personal grievance, the obligation to provide relevant information is closely linked to the statutory duty of good faith under the Employment Relations Act 2000. Employers who fail to disclose relevant information risk findings of procedural unfairness.

The fundamental principle within New Zealand employment law is that; if the employee is ready, willing and able to work, the employer must pay their ordinary wages. However, situations do arise from time to time where the employee is able to work, but for some valid reason, the employer does not want the employee to attend work.

The fundamental principle within New Zealand employment law is that; if the employee is ready, willing and able to work, the employer must pay their ordinary wages. However, situations do arise from time to time where the employee is able to work, but for some valid reason, the employer does not want the employee to attend work.

Pursuant to the provisions of The Privacy Act 2020, the primary means to gather information on an employee, is to obtain the information directly from the person themselves.

A genuine casual employee has no set or agreed days or hours of work with any work being offered on an ‘offer and acceptance’ basis. The employee cannot raise complaint for not being offered work, and the employer cannot penalize the casual employee for not accepting an offer of work.

An employee’s employment agreement will set out the general terms and conditions under which the employment relationship will operate. The company will also have set policies and procedures that provide specific guidelines with respect to how the company will operate, and therefore how the employee is expected to undertake their duties and responsibilities.

Many organisations may seek to engage labour on a ‘contracting’ basis, rather than as employees, believing this offers a greater degree of flexibility within the workforce, while reducing the usual risks and liabilities that occur in traditional employment models. However, while ‘contracting out’ is well established in many industry sectors, the fact that the parties

Restructuring a business that may result in employee redundancies is a complex process, thwart with all kinds of problems that could result in significant employment liabilities being incurred. This is even more difficult when a small number of redundancies need to be made from a larger group of employees, all doing the same or similar

Every year the EMA publishes statistics on personal grievance (PG) determinations of the Employment Relations Authority (the Authority), using data from the Thomson Reuters Westlaw NZ Personal Grievance Tracker Analysis. The purpose is this analysis to get a sense of current trends in terms of the number and type of grievances, awards, costs, and success rates.

An employee’s terms and conditions of employment will be contained within the Employment Agreement and the employer’s Code of Conduct.