CONVENTION 47 NEW ZEALAND

Article 22 of the Constitution of the ILO

Report for the period 1 June 2004 to 31 May 2008
made by the Government of New Zealand on the

FORTY-HOUR WEEK CONVENTION, 1935 (No. 47)

(ratification registered on 29 March 1938)

1. Please indicate whether the principle of the 40-hour week is applied by means of –
   1. national laws or regulations, or
   2. collective agreements, or
   3. arbitration awards, or
   4. some combination of the above, or
   5. in some in some other manner.

Please give a list of the legislation and administrative regulations, etc., which apply the provisions of the Convention.  Where this has not already been done, please forward copies of the said legislation, etc., to the International Labour Organisation with this report.

Please give any available information concerning the extent to which these laws and regulations have been enacted or modified to permit of, or as a result of, ratification.

The principle of the 40-hour week is applied by means of national laws and regulations:

• Employment Relations Act 2000;
• The Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992
• Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act 2002;
• Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995;
• Minimum Wage Act 1983;
• Minimum Wage (Training in the Nature of Apprenticeship) Regulations 1992 (repealed);
• Minimum Wage (Industry Training) Regulations 1999 (repealed); and
• The Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Act 2007.

A copy of the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Act 2007 and the Minimum (New Entrants) Amendment Act 2007 (which updates the Minimum Wage act 1983) are provided through the following links:

Flexible Working Arrangements:
http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2007/0105/latest/DLM1034656.html

New Entrants:
http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1983/0115/latest/DLM74093.html

The Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Act 2007

The Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Act 2007 was passed in November 2007 and will come into force on 1 July 2008.  It will change the way some employees and employers make and respond to requests for flexible working arrangements.

The Act provides certain employees with the right to request a variation to their hours of work, days of work, or place of work.  To be eligible for the “right to request” an employee must have the care of a person and have been employed by their employer for 6 months prior to making the request.  The employee must explain how the variation will help the employee provide better care for the person concerned.

The Act requires employers to consider the request for flexible working arrangements and provides the only grounds upon which a request can be refused. The Act also provides a process for how requests are to be made and responded to. Employers and employees may seek assistance from the Department of Labour about requests for flexible working arrangements.

In the case of disagreements, the Act provides a resolution process similar to other employment relations issues.  This process can be started only if an employee believes that their employer has either wrongly determined that they are not eligible to make a request, or has not followed the correct process set out in the Act.  Steps include referral of the matter to a Labour Inspector, referral to mediation, and application to the Employment Relations Authority.

2. Please indicate in detail for each of the following articles of the Convention the provisions of the above-mentioned legislation and administrative regulations., etc. or other measures under which each article is applied.
   
   If the Committee of Experts or the Conference Committee on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations has requested additional information or has made an observation on the measures adopted to apply the Convention, please supply the information asked for or indicate the action taken by your Government to settle the points in question.

Article 1

Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this Convention declares its approval of –

1. the principle of a 40-hour week applied in such a manner that the standard of living is not reduced in consequence; and
2. the taking or facilitating of such measures as may be judged appropriate to secure this end;

and undertakes to apply this principle to classes of employment in accordance with the detailed provisions to be prescribed by such separate Conventions as are ratified by that Member.

The Convention is given effect by the Minimum Wage Act 1983, the Employment Relations Act 2000, and the Health and the Safety in Employment Act 1992, which apply to all employees.

The principle of the 40-hour week is applied through the Minimum Wage Act 1983 (s11b). Section 11b provides that employment agreements will normally fix the ordinary working week at no more than 40 hours, excluding overtime, to be worked on not more than 5 days of the week.  Exceptions may be made where the parties to the agreement agree to set the hours at more than 40 hours.  Rates for overtime are set by negotiation.

Employment agreements, either collective or individual, are negotiated under the Employment Relations Act 2000 and should contain agreements on the hours to be worked.

Section 65(2)(a)(iv) of the Employment Relations Act 2000 requires that all individual employment agreements must be in writing and contain an indication of the arrangements relating to the time an employee is to work.

The Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 promotes the prevention of harm in the workplace. While hours of work are not explicitly regulated, a 2002 amendment changed the definition of “harm” to explicitly include physical or mental harm caused by work-related stress. In addition, the definition of hazard has been amended to include hazardous behaviour resulting from physical or mental fatigue.

Employers have a duty, under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 to prevent harm occurring to employees while at work, including harm arising from excessive work hours or insufficient rest periods. The Department of Labour has published an Approved Code of Practice for Safety and Health in Forest Operations which includes guidelines on hours of work and rest periods for the forestry industry.  The Department of Labour provides guidance on stress and fatigue in the workplace and the effects of shift-work. This guidance was revised and re-issued in 2007.

In the transport sector, there are specific controls on the working hours of certain occupations or roles. These are contained in the respective legislative regimes for air, sea, road and rail transport.

In other sectors, the Department of Labour’s guidance encourages employers and others responsible for organising the work of others to address issues of fatigue systematically, and as they would other hazards. Guidance is framed around the recognition of fatigue and its causes in the workplace, and then developing appropriate strategies, policies and procedures for a particular setting. The law requires employers the take “all practicable steps” to do this.

Hours of work in practice

Data on the hours of work in practice are drawn from a series of sources.  These sources include the Department of Labour’s database on collective employment agreements and official statistics such as the Quarterly Employment Survey and the Household Labour Force Survey.

Data from the Department of Labour’s collective employment agreement database

Collective Employment agreements generally contain provisions detailing employees’ hours of work. Information collected by the Department of Labour, as at 31 March 2008, from employment agreements covering 20 or more employees indicates that the 40-hour week remains standard. Of the 740 active agreements analysed, which cover 172, 083 employees, 85.3% of these agreements covering 79% of employees provide for hours of work of 40 hours per week. 

The database is constructed from collective employment agreements. Under section 59 of the Employment Relations Act the parties to a collective agreement must deliver the collective agreement to the Department of Labour. 

Data from Statistics New Zealand Surveys

The datasets below, sourced from Statistics New Zealand, set out:

• the average ordinary hours worked by New Zealanders (including overtime);
• an estimate of total gross earnings earned from overtime work for 2007; and
• the average usual hours worked per week by New Zealand employees.

Data from the Statistics New Zealand Quarterly Employment Survey

Table 1 below, from Statistics New Zealand Quarterly Employment Survey, sets out the numbers of hours worked by employees from 2003 to 2007.  The table shows the average hours worked by New Zealand employees, including overtime, as being relative stable around 38 hours total.

The estimate for total gross earnings earned from overtime work for the 2007 year provided by the Quarterly Employment Survey is $1.646 billion. The estimated total wage bill for 2007 was just over $62 billion. 

Table 1: Average hours worked by employees March 2003 to March 2007

Year	Ordinary Time Hours	Overtime Hours	Total Hours
Mar-03	37.73	1.15	38.88
Mar-04	37.74	1.10	38.84
Mar-05	37.56	1.10	38.66
Mar-06	37.16	1.03	38.19
Mar-07	37.35	1.02	38.37

(Source Quarterly Employment Survey Statistics New Zealand)

Data from the Statistics New Zealand Household Labour Force Survey

The average usual hours of work worked per week by New Zealand employees is set out in the table below.  The table is drawn from the Household Labour Force Survey.  The HLFS asks two questions in relation to the hours worked by employees.  The first question is how many hours did you actually work last week, and the second question is how many hours do you usually work?  The data in the table below refers to usual hours worked.  This is the preferred measure in the HLFS as people who were sick, or on annual leave, could have said 0 to the question regarding the actual hours worked, but 40 to the question regarding the usual hours worked.  Data on usual hours of work is collected quarterly and is averaged over the year to reduce seasonality and sample error. 

In terms of usual hours of work, the Household Labour Force Survey indicates that for 2007 66.3% of employees are working an average of 40 hours or less per week.  This figure has been obtained by adding the categories of all those who work 40 hours or less.

Table 2: Average Usual Hours of Work per Week 2002 – 2007

Average for year ended March	0-19	20-29	30-39	40	41-49	50-59	60+	Not specified	Total
2002	14.9%	8.3%	11.5%	29.9%	14.1%	11.8%	9.1%	0.3%	100%
2003	14.3%	8.7%	11.6%	30.6%	14.0%	11.8%	8.8%	0.3%	100%
2004	14.0%	8.6%	11.8%	31.1%	14.0%	11.8%	8.4%	0.3%	100%
2005	13.6%	8.6%	11.7%	32.2%	14.4%	11.8%	7.6%	0.0%	100%
2006	13.4%	8.6%	12.1%	32.2%	14.9%	11.8%	6.9%	0.0%	100%
2007	13.5%	8.4%	13.0%	31.4%	15.6%	11.5%	6.6%	0.0%	100%

(Table Source: Household Labour Force Survey, Statistics New Zealand)

         
Work-Life Balance Project

Work–Life Balance addresses the principle of the 40-hour week through seeking to assist New Zealanders in maintaining a balance between work and other activities; one aspect of this is maintaining an appropriate level of working hours.  The Work-Life Balance Project does this through policy initiatives, legislative change, provision of resources to workplaces, and influencing change in workplaces so that employees and employers can ensure that there is work-life balance in the workplace.  The actions taken in relation to work-life balance are set out below.

The government recognises that improved work-life balance contributes to increased workplace productivity, improved well-being and quality of life, and addressing the labour market issues and skill shortages. 

In November 2004 the government agreed to a three-year work programme to promote a better balance between paid work and life outside of work.  The focus of the work programme has been on workplace cultures and practices, recognising that workplace initiatives on work-life balance must be underpinned by supporting cultures and attitudes, if the initiatives are to be effective.

Progress on the work programme is set out below:

• Policy work - covering the right to request flexible work arrangements, parental leave, carers’ leave, work-life balance solutions for people with multiple care responsibilities, breaks and infant feeding provisions.  The right to request flexible work arrangements has been legislated and covers employees with caring responsibilities, as indicated in Section 1 of this report.  A Bill on breaks and infant feeding is currently before the New Zealand Parliament.  The government is also developing a Carers’ Strategy that aims to give carers choices and opportunities to enter, progress or stay in education or employment.
• Influencing change in workplaces - The government has produced a number of resources for employers to help them to develop and implement work-life balance initiatives in their organisations.  The resources have been developed from demonstration projects where the government worked in partnership with a group of workplaces to develop and trial practical customised work-life balance tools designed to meet the business needs of employers, while meeting the work-life balance needs of their employees.  This is also linked to the government’s work on workplace productivity. 
• Research - The government also completed a national baseline survey of employers and employees in 2005 to provide, for the first time, comprehensive information on the level of awareness, provision and uptake of work-life balance practices in New Zealand workplaces.  The survey results were released in mid-2006 and provide benchmark data against which to assess improvements to the work-life balance of New Zealanders. 

Employees identified the first two initiatives as being the most helpful.  The single most helpful arrangement was having flexible start and finish times. 

The full Work-life Balance 2006 survey report is available on the Department’s website (see http://www.dol.govt.nz/worklife/snapshot.asp).  The survey is being repeated in 2008.

Publications on how to make work-life balance work are available and set out practical steps of making work-life balance achievable within organisations.  Further information is available on line at http://www.dol.govt.nz/worklife/index.asp.

Committee of Experts' Comments

Response to the Committee of Experts comments on the previous article 22 report is provided in Annex 1 to this report.

3. Please state to what authority or authorities the application of the above-mentioned legislation and administrative regulations, etc., is entrusted and the methods for supervising and enforcing that application.  In particular, supply information on the organisation and working of inspection.

The Labour Inspectorate of the Department of Labour is responsible for enforcement of minimum employment standards as set down by statute.  Where a Labour Inspector determines that a breach of a minimum employment right has occurred, the primary remedy is compliance.

Unions, individual employees or their representatives can also enforce minimum employment rights, including through seeking assistance from the state funded mediation services of the Department of Labour.   Similarly where the issue is one relating to a potential breach of an employment agreement, whether individual or collective, the Department’s mediation services are available to assist the parties involved to settle differences.  Labour Inspectors do not have powers to resolve disputes over employment agreements, unless that dispute also impinges on a minimum rights matter.

Where an approach to a Labour Inspector or to mediation services is not successful, the employee, union, other representative, or the Labour Inspector as appropriate, can take an action to resolve the matter in the Employment Relations Authority.

To assist with the enforcement of employment agreements, all employers are required to maintain a written record of wages paid and holidays taken.  In addition there is a requirement to record the hours an employee has worked but only where this is necessary for the purpose for calculating the employees pay. An employee, their union or other representative, or a Labour Inspector can access these records.

The Department of Labour, the Maritime Safety Authority and the Civil Aviation Authority administer the Health and Safety in Employment Act. Health and safety inspectors employed by these organisations are responsible for enforcing the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992.

4. Please state whether courts of law or other tribunals have given decisions involving questions of principle relating to the application of the Convention.  If so, please supply the text of these decisions.

 There has been one decision in relation to the principle of the 40-hour week.  This was in the determination of Dr Shie Sato v Vice-Chancellor of Massey University, 30 July 2007 (WA 106/07). 

The main issue in this case was the interpretation, application, or operation of the collective agreement relating to Dr Sato’s hours of work. Dr Sato sought a declaration that her contracted quantum of weekly hours was a maximum of 37.5 hours.  Alternatively the Employment Relations Authority was invited to find that Dr Sato’s hours of work were 40 per week in the terms of section 11B of the Minimum Wage Act 1983. 

The Employment Relations Authority found that:

• Doctor Sato’s hours of work were not fixed at 37.4 or 40 hours per week; and 
• Based on the evidence provided, Doctor Sato’s employment agreement did not provide for a maximum number of hours.

The Employment Relations Authority found this because:

• the collective agreement, together with the workload policies imply that an academic employee may work more or less than a ‘notional’ 37.5 hour week; and
• that the hours worked will be dictated by the peaks and troughs of the academic work to be undertaken. This constituted an agreement pursuant to section 11B(2) of the Minimum Wage Act 1983.

The full text of this decision including all evidence in this case is attached with this report.

5. Please give a general appreciation of the manner in which the Convention is applied in your country, including, for instance, extracts from official reports and information on any practical difficulties in the application of the Convention.

1. the categories and numbers of workers to whom the principle of the 40-hour week has been applied; the number of overtime hours worked in excess of the 40-hour week by these workers; and the total wages paid for overtime;
2. the categories and numbers of workers to whom the principle of the 40-hour week has not as yet been applied; the normal hours of work of these workers and the number of overtime hours worked, and the total wages paid for overtime.

There is no further information other than that provided in Section II of this report.  Please refer to Section II of this report.

6. Please indicate the representative organisations of employers and workers to which copies of this report have been provided.

New Zealand Council of Trade Unions
Business New Zealand

ANNEX 1:

Responses to comments made by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations in 2003

Reply to the Committee of Experts Observations, CEACR 2003/74th Session
The Committee of Experts Observations on New Zealand’s Article 22 Report on this Convention, noted

“In reply to the Committee’s previous comments, the Government indicates that it is committed to assisting workers to achieve balance between their work and their life and is therefore currently considering a specific work programme on this topic. The Government further points out that the good faith provisions of the Employment Relations Act require the negotiating parties to communicate with each other openly and honestly and to consider each other’s view, including in the field of weekly rest. Furthermore, the Government refers to the Health and Safety in Employment Act, inasmuch as it requires employers to prevent harm occurring to employees while at work, including harm arising from excessive working hours or insufficient rest periods.

The observations of Business New Zealand, communicated with the Government’s report, support the view taken by the Government that the changes of the employment relations framework to promote the role of collective bargaining and unions are likely to assist the entrenchment of the principle of a 40-hour week.

Referring to the 40-hour week principle, provided for, with the possibility of making exceptions, under section 11 B of the Minimum Wage Act, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZTU), however, indicates that it is aware of widespread abuse of this principle in practice. Thus, according to the 2001 census, 34 per cent of the workers surveyed were working over 40 hours, 21 per cent more than 50 hours and 9 per cent over 60 hours per week. NZTU further indicates that a trend towards a steady increase in hours worked is apparent. According to NZTU, the problem similarly exists in the public service, for managerial as well as for support staff. In reply to these observations, the Government announces the appointment of a steering group to develop, within the frame of the designated work-life balance programme, policy options aiming at a better access of workers to work-life balance.

The Government remains committed to the principle of 40-hour week and considers that the legislative framework outlined in this report contributes to this.  In addition the Government has provided further information in this report on the ongoing Work-Life Balance programme in terms of policy work, influencing change in the workplace, and research.  There have also been amendments to the Employment Relations Act 2000 to encourage flexible working arrangements in the workplace.  These measures contribute to enabling great work-life balance for employees in the workplace. 

In relation to the statistical data, the ILO stated the following,

The statistical data supplied by the Government, too, show that appeals to the good will of the contracting parties are not sufficient to secure the 40-hour principle. According to these figures, 34 per cent of collective agreements covering 37 per cent of employees have a weekly span of Monday to Sunday. The same number of employees are working an average of more than 40 hours per week. Even though the statistics provided appear not to give a coherent overview on the categories and numbers of workers concerned (an independent research indicates that 77 per cent of collective employment agreements provide for ordinary working time of 40 or less hours per week; and, according to data collected by the Labour Department, out of 2,161 agreements analysed covering 226,021 employees, 84 per cent of these agreements covering 83 per cent of employees provide for the 40-hour week as a standard), the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the fact that averaging implies the possibility of working in excess of 40 hours in the week. In order to ensure compliance with the letter and spirit of the Convention, which aim at safeguarding the health and well-being of workers and protecting them against abuses, provision should be made to set at least reasonable time limits to averaging, for example by restricting it to a certain period within one given month. Where hours of work are calculated as an average, it is evident that the longer the reference period, the greater the risk of abuses.  Moreover, hours worked on a regular basis in excess of the 40-hour week should only be permitted for certain categories of workers or types of work. In principle, such work should be determined and paid as overtime. With reference to Paragraph 12 of Recommendation No. 116 concerning reduction of hours of work and its 1967 General Survey, the Committee recalls that the calculation of normal hours of work as an average over a period longer than a week should be exceptional and limited to certain sectors in which technical needs justify it (paragraph 142).”

In relation to the Committee’s comments, answers provided below and key statistics regarding the principle of 40-hour week are set out. 

Statistical Measures

The Department uses three statistical measures in this report to provide information on the application of the 40-hour week.  These statistical measures are:

• the Department of Labour’s collective employment agreement database;
• the Quarterly Employment Survey undertaken by Statistics New Zealand, the government agency that deals with statistics; and
• the Household Labour Force Survey undertaken by Statistics New Zealand.

Committee's Comments

The Committee comments “the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the fact that averaging implies the possibility of working in excess of 40 hours in the week. In order to ensure compliance with the letter and spirit of the Convention, which aim at safeguarding the health and well-being of workers and protecting them against abuses, provision should be made to set at least reasonable time limits to averaging, for example by restricting it to a certain period within one given month. Where hours of work are calculated as an average, it is evident that the longer the reference period, the greater the risk of abuses.”  The Government considers that the datasets it provides are robust statistical measures.  The data provided constitutes evidence for compliance with this Convention.  Explanations for how each data set is constructed are set out below.

The Quarterly Employment Survey

The Quarterly Employment Survey’s (QES) purpose is to measure quarterly estimates of the changes in and levels of average hourly and average weekly (pre-tax) earnings, average weekly paid hours, and the number of filled jobs.  The target population is approximately 18,000 “economically significant” enterprises in surveyed industries with employees.  An “economically significant” enterprise is one which has greater than $30,000 annual GST sales or expenses and/or has at least three employees.  Therefore the QES survey sample currently includes one hundred percent of large firms, a lesser fraction of medium-sized firms, and a smaller fraction of small firms are surveyed.  The survey reference period is the pay week ending on or immediately before the 20th of the middle month of the quarter.  Some industries such as Agriculture and Commercial Fishing are excluded from QES coverage.

Ordinary time paid hours

The number of paid hours represented by ordinary time earnings.  Paid travelling time and hours represented by holiday pay and sick pay are included.

Overtime paid hours

The number of overtime paid hours worked by all employees in the survey pay week.

QES average earnings and hours statistics are derived from aggregate earnings and hours information, which relate to all male and female employees at business locations. Information is not collected on the earnings and hours of individual employees. Therefore, movements in average earnings statistics are influenced not only by changes in employees' remuneration resulting from changes in wage rates, salaries and hours worked, but also by changes in the composition of the paid workforce from survey to survey.

Household Labour Force Survey

The Household Labour Force Survey is the official source of employment and unemployment data.  The sample comprises 15,000 households that are selected on a statistically representative basis from around New Zealand.  From this sample, data is obtained on the labour market status of around 30,000 individuals.  One-eighth of the sample households are rotated out of the survey each quarter and replaced by a new sample of households.  Thus the sample is completely rotated every two years.  HLFS statistics are averages for the three-month period and do not apply to any particular time in the period.  This approach spreads the survey workload throughout the quarter and, to a large extent, removes the within-quarter irregularities inherent in a fixed point survey estimate.

The Department of Labour’s collective agreement database

Under section 59 of the Employment Relations Act the parties to a collective agreement must deliver the collective agreement to the Department of Labour. 

Key Statistics

The Department of Labour’s collective employment agreement database showed that of the 740 active agreements analysed, which cover 172, 083 employees, 85.3% of these agreements covering 79% of employees provide for hours of work of 40 hours per week. 

The Quarterly Employment Survey shows the average hours worked by New Zealand employees, including overtime, as being relative stable around 38 hours total.

In terms of the average usual hours of work worked by New Zealand employees the Household Labour Force Survey indicates that 66.3% of employees are working an average of 40 hours or less per week. 

In addition to these comments the Committee of Experts asked New Zealand the following:

“The Committee requests the Government to continue to indicate in its next report any measures it has taken or contemplated in line with the aforementioned comments to ensure full application of the principle of a 40-hour week embodied in the Convention.  Please also indicate to what class of employment this principle is applied and the extent to which hours may be worked in excess of the 40-hour week either on a regular basis, or as overtime and, in this latter case, with particulars of the rate of pay for overtime.”

In relation to the Committee’s comments asking the Government to report on measures “it has taken or contemplated in line with the aforementioned comments to ensure full application of the principle of a 40-hour week embodied in the Convention” the Government notes the role of the legislative framework, legislative changes such as the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Act 2007, and Government policies like the Work Life Balance Project.  The principle of the 40-hour week is built into policy work.

The legislative framework comprising the provisions of the Minimum Wage Act 1983, the Employment Relations Act 2000, and the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 combine to contribute to the principle of the 40-hour week.  The Minimum Wage Act 1983 applies the principle of the 40-hour week through requiring that employment agreements will normally fix the ordinary working week at no more than 40 hours, excluding overtime, to be worked on not more than 5 days of the week.  Exceptions may be made where the parties to the agreement agree to set the hours at more than 40 hours.  Under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 employers have a duty to prevent harm occurring to employees while at work, including harm arising from excessive work hours or insufficient rest periods. 

Legislative changes such as the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Act 2007 also contribute to the principle of the 40-hour week.  This new legislation will require employers to consider the request for flexible working arrangements and provides the only grounds upon which a request can be refused.  Allowing employees greater flexibility about they how work contributes to the principle of the 40-hour week.

The Work Life Balance project addresses the principle of the 40-hour week through assisting New Zealanders in maintaining a balance between work and other activities, including maintaining an appropriate level of working hours.  Examples include policy work on parental leave, carers’ leave and flexible work arrangements. 

The Committee also asks that the Government “indicate to what class of employment this principle is applied and the extent to which hours may be worked in excess of the 40-hour week either on a regular basis, or as overtime and, in this latter case, with particulars of the rate of pay for overtime.”  The provisions of the Minimum Wage Act 1983, the Employment Relations Act 2000, and the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 apply to all employees.  The Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Act 2007 gives a right to request flexible working arrangements to certain employees only.  An employee to be eligible for the “right to request” must have the care of a person and have been employed by their employer for 6 months prior to making the request.  They must explain how the variation will help them to provide better care for the person concerned.  The Work-Life Balance project is aimed at all New Zealand workplaces.

In terms of the hours of worked in excess of the 40-hour week, this is a matter for negotiation between the employer and employee with regard to the legislation discussed above.