The Department of Labour’s Compliance Objective
The aim of the Department in regulating compliance with minimum employment standards is:
- to rectify identified non-compliance with legislation, through a range of enforcement tools
- to provide information and advice to employers and employees in order to raise awareness of rights and obligations in employment law
- to bring about sustained compliance by employers and employees.
New Zealand has ratified the International Labour Organisation Convention 81 on Labour Inspection (1947). That instrument requires that New Zealand maintain an adequately resourced and independent system of labour inspection in industry and commerce. The functions of the labour inspection system, as defined by the Convention, are: to enforce the legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers; to inform and advise employers and workers on how they can best comply with the laws; and to advise the competent authority of defects or abuses not specifically covered by existing legal provisions.
Our main objective as a regulator is to improve New Zealanders’ working lives and New Zealand’s economic and social well-being. Sustainable compliance with the minimum code through a system of labour inspection fosters the growth of high quality, productive places of work.
