Collective agreements
There are set procedures for negotiating a collective agreement and these must be complied with by all parties. These procedures are set out in detail under Collective bargaining procedures.
The objective of collective bargaining is to establish or renew a collective employment agreement. This must comply with a number of legal requirements.
It must:
- Identify who is covered by the agreement — this is the “coverage clause”
- Include a plain language explanation of the services available to sort out any future employment relations problems
- Include a clause stating how the agreement can be changed
- Include the expiry date (or the event that will trigger expiry)
- Include a provision that complies with the Holidays Act 2003 requirement for employees to be paid at least time and a half for work on public holidays.
In most cases, it must also include a provision setting out how the employer will protect his employees if the business is sold or contracted out.
The parties to a collective agreement must ensure that, as soon as practicable after they enter into the agreement, a copy of the agreement is sent to:
Chief Executive
Department of Labour
P O Box 3705
Wellington
Attn: Executive Officer – Labour Group
Alternatively you can send a signed pdf copy to contract.account@dol.govt.nz.
They must also include any other document referred to by the collective agreement or incorporated into it unless that document is publicly available.
Parties should also include, for statistical purposes, the number of employees covered by the collective agreement and the negotiated wage movement (% increase).
The employer and the union should retain a signed copy of the collective employment agreement and provide a copy to employees when they request it.
