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Union registration and administration

What are the basic requirements to register?

Under the Employment Relations Act 2000, any group of employees can set up and register as a union. To be a union, a group of employees must first become an incorporated society (under the Incorporated Societies Act 1908) and register as a union under the Employment Relations Act 2000.

To achieve both these things, the union:

The union must:

What information do you have to supply?

You will need to:

What the Employment Relations Act requires

The Employment Relations Act 2000 requires a union to be an incorporated society, to be independent from employers, and to have a set of rules that comply with the requirements of the Employment Relations Act 2000

Independence from employers

A union must be independent of, and be constituted and operate at arms length, from any employer.

The Registrar of Unions may examine applications for registration as a union to determine whether or not an applicant is independent of any employer. If an applicant is not independent of any employer, the Registrar must decline to register it as a union.

Employer support for the formation and/or registration of a union will not, in itself, prevent registration. The Registrar of Unions will consider all relevant circumstances including the nature and purpose of employer support and any employer influence over the nature or scope of the union's activities.

Union rules

A union's rules or constitution set out what the purpose of the union is and how it will operate. Union rules will vary depending on the nature of the union. A large national union will need a far more complex set of rules than will a small workplace-based union.

The Employment Relations Act 2000 requires that a union's rules:

Hints on creating union rules draws your attention to the requirements of both the Incorporated Societies Act 1908 and the Employment Relations Act 2000. It also makes some practical suggestions about what you might include in your rules.

How to register as a union

Overview

As indicated earlier, to become a union, a group of employees must follow a two step process:

Becoming an incorporated society

See Registering an Incorporated Society (available on the Companies Office website, clicking through from Information Library/Companies Office/Societies and Trusts).

Applying to register as a union

If you are already an incorporated society, you need to:

To apply for registration as a union, an officer of the society needs to:

The Registrar will deal with applications in the order in which they are received.

Registration

The Registrar of Unions will then check your application. If it is in order and complies with the Employment Relations Act 2000, the Registrar will register your union and send you a certificate of registration in Form 2 of the Employment Relations (Prescribed Forms) Regulations 2000.

Other things to be aware of

Under the Employment Relations Act 2000, it is an offence to mislead the Registrar of Unions. The penalty for misleading the Registrar can be up to $5,000.

The union officer who makes the statutory declaration (referred to above) needs to carefully consider the requirements of the Employment Relations Act 2000 before signing that declaration.

Administering unions

The Registrar of Unions and the Registrar of Incorporated Societies have agreed to work together to help unions comply with both the Incorporated Societies Act 1908 and the Employment Relations Act 2000. Accordingly, below are some administrative requirements from both Acts. Also see Incorporated Societies after Registration (available on the Companies Office website, clicking through from Information Library/Companies Office/Societies and Trusts).

Independence from employers

A union must operate independently from employers. If a union does not do so, it may have its registration revoked following an investigation by the Employment Relations Authority.

Annual financial statement

Each year, every union must get approval for its annual financial statement at an (annual) general meeting of members and must deliver a copy of that statement to the Registrar of Incorporated Societies.

Annual return membership reports

Each year, every union must advise the Registrar of Unions of the number of members it has as at 1 March that year. It must deliver that information to the Registrar by 1 June.

Changes to rules

A union's rules will state how the union may change its rules. Any change to the rules is not valid until the amendment has been approved by the Registrar of Incorporated Societies.

Advice on how to make rule changes is set out in Incorporated Societies after Registration [external site]. A union needs to be careful to ensure that any rule changes also comply with the Employment Relations Act 2000.

Registered office

Every union must have a registered office and must advise the Registrar of Incorporated Societies of it. If a union changes its registered office, it must advise the Registrar of Incorporated Societies.

Contact details

Registrar of Unions

The Registrar of Unions can be contacted at:

Registrar of Unions
Workplace Services
Department of Labour
P O Box 3705, Wellington
Telephone 04 915 4512

Registrar of Incorporated Societies

The Registrar of Incorporated Societies can be contacted on: Telephone 0508 companies (0508 266 726)

Copies of Legislation

You can access copies of the Employment Relations Act 2000 and the Incorporated Societies Act 1908 online [external site].

All public libraries in New Zealand have copies of current legislation available to read at no cost, and copies of the Acts and Regulations can be ordered online [external site].

The NZ Legislation website provides free public access to unofficial versions of New Zealand statutes (public, local, and private Acts of Parliament) as well as Statutory Regulations. You can search alphabetically and browse the Act or Regulations you want free of charge.

NOTE: access is usually to the text of the original legislation. This may NOT include the effect of any subsequent amendments. Usually, amended legislation is listed along with the original, so you can easily find that as well.

Hints on creating union rules

This guide is designed to assist groups of employees to create a simple set of union rules. It is not legal advice.

It points out requirements imposed by both the Incorporated Societies Act 1908 and the Employment Relations Act 2000.

Union rules must be:

What specific union rules must and may include

Name: A union must have a name and the name must end with the word "Incorporated" (Incorporated Societies Act)

Objects: A union's "objects" define the union's aims and purposes. A union must have a set of objects (Incorporated Societies Act 1908). Those objects:

Powers: A union's powers define the actions a union can take to administer itself. Rules:
must clearly define what (if any) powers the union has to borrow money (Incorporated Societies Act 1908)
need to set out normal administrative and any other powers that the union may need to operate effectively. This is because a union can only do things that its rules authorise it to do

Membership: The membership rule defines who may join the union. A union might define its membership in one or more of the following ways:

Unions may have overlapping membership coverage. There is nothing in the Employment Relations Act to prevent an employee joining more than one union.

Unions need to note that there are close links between membership rules and union access rights, which means there may be room for confusion if membership rules are unclear.

Unions also need to note that union members are automatically bound by collective agreements negotiated by the union. Some employees may not want the union to represent them for the purposes of collective bargaining. If so, unions should have another category (avoiding the word "member") of person who can join the union for purposes other than collective bargaining.

The rules:

Fees: Rules generally specify some means of fixing and collecting union fees.

Governance: The rules need to set out how the union's decision making structures

Work: Rules must cover how meetings are summoned, how members (or their delegates) can participate in the meetings, how the meetings are conducted (chair, quorum, etc), and how voting occurs (Incorporated Societies Act 1908)

Rule changes: The rules must specify how the rules may be altered, added to, or rescinded (Incorporated Societies Act 1908). This is generally done by a decision of the union's peak decision making body (e.g. the AGM or an SGM)

Officers: The rules:

The traditional union "secretary" may be an elected "officer" but is often an employee who is appointed by the executive committee.

Funds: The rules must include rules on the control and investment of funds (Incorporated Societies Act 1908). The rules must set out:

Common seal: The common seal is a stamp used on documents issued in the society's name to show they are valid. The rules must set out who controls and uses the seal and what the seal is used for (Incorporated Societies Act 1908).

Assets: The rules must state what will happen to any property of the union if the union is wound up or liquidated (Incorporated Societies Act 1908).