Minimum employment rights

When you become an employer, you need to be aware of employment rights in two key areas - the minimum pay and conditions you must provide your employees and the way you must treat your employees at work.

If your business operates in catering, cleaning, caretaking, laundry and orderly work, or a similar field, you may also have to provide additional rights to your employees.

Regardless of the sector you employ in, you can never ask potential hires to agree to working terms that are anything less than the minimum rights afforded to them under New Zealand law.

There are financial penalties for not complying with employment laws of up to $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for companies. An employer may also be fined or prosecuted for not complying with workplace health and safety laws.

On this page:

Health and safety
Employment agreements
Pay and the minimum wage
Rest and meal breaks
Holidays and leave
Other considerations

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Health and safety

Health and safety standards in the workplace are set by laws such as the Health and Safety in Employment Act (1992). In particular, they focus on:

Providing safe working environments, proper training, supervision and equipment.
Taking reasonable care to keep yourself safe and avoid causing harm to others when working.
The employee’s right to refuse work likely to cause them serious harm.

You should get to know your obligations by reviewing the health and safety laws and regulations summaries provided by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment – Labour.

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Employment agreements

Every employee must have a written employment agreement.

They can be individual or collective (i.e., union negotiated) agreements.
They must include a certain set of mandatory provisions and clauses. Use the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment – Labour’s Employment agreement builder to make sure you include these in your contracts.

There are a number of minimum employment conditions you must adhere to regardless of whether they’re stated in writing in an employment agreement. Employment law also provides a framework for the process of negotiating additional entitlements.

Find out more with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment – Labour guide Minimum employment rights and obligations (PDF).

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Pay and the minimum wage

Your employees must be paid at least the minimum wage if they’re:

Full-time.
Part-time, casual or fixed-term.
A home worker.
Paid totally or partly by commission or on a piece rate (i.e., the total weekly pay must be at least minimum wage).

There are two minimum wage rates:

The adult minimum wage:

For those aged 16 years and over who aren’t new to the workforce or trainees.

The starting-out wage:

For 16 and 17 year olds starting out in the workforce; 18 and 19 year olds who have been on a benefit for six months or more; and 16 to 19 year olds in training in a recognised industry training course involving at least 40 credits a year.

A small number of people hold an exemption from the minimum wage. Minimum pay rates are reviewed each year.

You must pay wages without deductions on the agreed pay day. You can only make deductions from wages if:

Your employee has agreed to, or requested, the deduction in writing.
The employment agreement says the deduction can be made.
There has been an overpayment in certain limited circumstances relating to strikes, lockouts, suspensions or an employee being absent without authority.
It is required by law – i.e. income tax deductions.

Find out more with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment – Labour guide Pay and the minimum wage.

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Rest and meal breaks

You must provide all your employees with paid rest breaks and unpaid meal breaks. Your employees are entitled under the Employment Relations Act 2000 to receive:

A paid 10-minute rest break if their work period is between two and four hours.
A paid 10-minute rest break and an unpaid 30-minute meal break if their work period is from four to six hours.
Two paid 10-minute rest breaks and one unpaid 30-minute meal break if their work period is from six to eight hours.

Find out more with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment – Labour.

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Holidays and leave

Your employees’ minimum holidays and leave rights are provided by the Holidays Act (2003).

Annual holidays

Under the Act, your employees are entitled to:

Four weeks’ paid annual holiday at the end of each year.
8% of their gross earnings minus any holiday pay already received, if they leave in the first year.

However, you can offer your employees holiday pay on a “pay as you go” basis if:

They are on a fixed-term contract of less than a year, or
Their work for you is so irregular or intermittent that it makes paying four weeks’ annual holiday impractical.

If you offer your employees holiday pay on a “pay as you go” basis:

All your employment agreements must state clearly the regularity and amount of holiday paid.
Holiday pay must be at least 8% of the employee’s gross earnings.
Holiday pay must be recorded separately in your wage records and on their pay slips.

Public holidays

There are 11 public holidays each year. If they fall on days your employees normally work, they must be paid for that day, even if they don’t actually work on that day.

If your employees work on a public holiday:

They must be paid at least time-and-a-half.
They are also entitled to an alternative holiday, if the public holiday falls on a day they would normally work.

Sick leave

All your employees are entitled to the following under the Act.

Five days’ paid sick leave a year after the first six months of employment.
To take sick leave for themselves or to care for a spouse or partner, dependent child or parent.
To have unused sick leave accumulate for up to 20 days.

As an employer:

You can request proof of illness. If you request this within the first three consecutive days of sickness you must pay the reasonable costs of getting this.
You cannot offer or accept an offer from an employee to exchange sick leave for payment
You are not required to pay out unused sick leave as payment at the end of an employment relationship.

Special eligibility tests apply for people in intermittent employment.

Bereavement leave

All your employees are entitled to the following under the Act after six months of employment.

Three days paid bereavement leave on the death of a spouse or partner, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or spouse’s or partner’s parent.
One day if you accept they’ve suffered bereavement on the death of any other person not included above.

Employees do not have to take all of their bereavement leave entitlement at the same time.

Special eligibility tests apply for people in intermittent employment.

Find out more about the Holidays Act (2003) with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment – Labour.

Parental leave

Under the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act (1987), an employee can claim parental leave if:

They are having a baby.
Their spouse or partner is having a baby.
They’ve jointly adopted a child under the age of six with their spouse or partner and have nominated themselves as the primary carer.
They’ve assumed care of a child they intend to adopt alone.

To become eligible for parental leave, an employee must have worked for you for an average of:

At least 10 hours a week (including at least one hour in every week or 40 hours in every month) in the six or 12 months immediately before the baby’s expected due date or the date they assume the care of a child they intend to adopt.

There are different entitlements available to them, depending on whether they meet the six or 12-month criteria.

Parental leave is a state-funded entitlement. You do not have to pay an employee during their parental leave unless you have agreed to do so in an employment agreement.

Find out more about employer responsibilities on parental leave with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment – Labour.

Other leave

An employee can also be entitled to leave under other circumstances, such as if they’re injured in an accident and they’re eligible for accident compensation.

Find out more with ACC.

If an employee carries out full or part-time voluntary training with the armed forces, they may also be eligible for unpaid leave.

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Other considerations

Flexible working arrangements

If one of your employees is a carer, they may have the right to request a change in the hours, days or place of work.

However, they can only do this if they’ve been employed by you for at least six months.

If an employee makes a flexibility request, you are only allowed to refuse it on certain grounds.

Find out more with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment – Labour.

Equal Pay & Discrimination

You can’t pay your employees differently for the same work if the only difference is their gender. You also can’t discriminate on pay, hiring, firing, training or promotion due to an employee’s:

gender or sexual orientation
race
colour
nationality or ethnic group
marital or family status
employment status
age
disability
religion
politics
ethical beliefs
union activity

Test your knowledge on equal employment opportunities with the equal employment opportunities workplace checklist.

Fixed-term employees

Fixed-term employees have the same rights as other employees, apart from the fact that their job will finish at the end of the fixed-term. You can only offer fixed-term employment where:

there are genuine reasons for it (like seasonal work, project work, or where they’re filling in for a permanent employee on leave)
you can justify these reasons and how or when employment will end to prospective employees.

Like all employment agreements, fixed-term agreements must be in writing.

90-day trial periods

If you employ 19 people or less, you can use a trial period in the employment agreements you offer to new employees.

Trial periods:

must be agreed to in writing by the prospective employee
cannot be applied to employees you’re re-hiring, regardless of whether you’re doing so for a different role.

If you dismiss the employee before the end of the trial period, they cannot raise a personal grievance against you or your business on the basis of an unjustified dismissal. However, they can still do so on the grounds of:

discrimination
harassment
an unjustified action on your part that disadvantaged them.

If an issue arises during a trial period or if you dismiss the employee in that time, you can access mediation services.

Find out more about mediation with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment – Labour.

Catering, cleaning, caretaking, laundry and orderly work

Special rules apply to employees who do this type of work if their employer’s business is sold or their work is contracted out or given to a new contractor.

Find out more about special rules for caterers, cleaners, caretakers, laundry workers and orderlies with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment – Labour.

Union membership

You cannot:

put unreasonable pressure on an employee to join or to not join a union
discriminate against an employee because they joined or didn’t join a union.

It is also illegal for anyone else to put unreasonable pressure on an employee to join or not to join a union.

Union members may be nominated by their union to undertake employment relations education on paid leave, and have rights to attend paid union meetings. Union members can also require you to deduct union fees from their wages and pay them to their union.

For further assistance, call the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment – Labour on 0800 20 90 20.