Legislation reviews
The Minister of Labour has introduced to Parliament two bills that propose changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000 and Holidays Act 2003.
Proposed changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000 include:
- Extending the trial period provision to cover all employers;
- Providing new enforcement tools for Labour Inspectors;
- Measures to ensure that employers provide written employment agreements; and
- A range of measures to improve problem resolution processes in personal grievance cases.
Proposed changes to the Holidays Act 2003 include:
- Allowing employees to request to exchange up to one week’s annual holidays per year for cash;
- Allowing employers and employees to agree to transfer the observance of a public holiday to another working day; and
- Changing the calculation for payment for sick leave, bereavement leave, public holidays and alternative holidays for employees with irregular hours and pay.
A Government announcement in July (Securing a Brighter Future : Employment Law Package) contains more information on the proposed changes.
If successfully passed through Parliament the majority of the proposed changes will take effect on 1 April 2011.
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The papers listed below contain information relating to the legislation reviews:
Employment Relations Act 2000
- Cabinet paper: Proposal to amend the Employment Relations Act 2000 and related work (July 2010) [html] [PDF, 41 pages, 319KB]
- Appendix to above Cabinet paper: Programme of Employment Relations Reform (July 2010) [html] [PDF, 2 pages, 129KB]
- Summary of submissions: Review of the Employment Relations Act 2000: Part 9 Personal Grievances (April 2010) [html] [PDF, 67 pages, 535KB]
- Briefing paper: Research on Personal Grievances (April 2010) [html] [PDF, 12 pages, 195KB]
- Research paper: Employer & employee views of the personal grievance process (April 2010) [html] [PDF, 48 pages, 444KB]
- Research paper: International provision of unfair dismissal protection (February 2010) [html] [PDF, 41 pages, 367KB]
- Research paper: Issues with the Personal Grievance system in New Zealand? (February 2010) [html] [PDF, 18 pages, 227KB]
Holidays Act 2003
- Cabinet paper: Review of the Holiday Act 2003 (June 2010) [html] [PDF, 23 pages, 197KB]
