HR Practice For Payroll Practitioners

HR Practice for Payroll Practitioners

Employment Relations Act 2000

In 2000 the Employment Relations Act was passed, replacing the Employment Contracts Act 1991. This was a major shift away from the employer – employee contract relationship, pushing it back to collective negotiations between the employer and a union. Employment contracts were now to be called employment agreements and a new concept of good faith was introduced to set guidelines on how the relationship between employer and employee would be managed.

In this section some of the main sections of the ERA will be covered but this is only an overview.

3 Object of this Act The object of this Act is--- (a)

to build productive employment relationships through the promotion of mutual trust and confidence in all aspects of the employment environment and of the employment relationship: (i) by recognising that employment relationships must be built on good faith behaviour; and (ii) by acknowledging and addressing the inherent inequality of bargaining power in employment relationships; and (iii) by promoting collective bargaining; and (iv) by protecting the integrity of individual choice; and (v) by promoting mediation as the primary problem-solving mechanism; and (vi) by reducing the need for judicial intervention; and (ab) to promote the effective enforcement of employment standards, in particular by conferring enforcement powers on Labour Inspectors, the Authority, and the court; and (b) to promote observance in New Zealand of the principles underlying International Labour Organisation Convention 87 on Freedom of Association, and Convention 98 on the Right to Organise and Bargain Collectively. The concept of good faith governs how parties who are planning to enter into an agreement deal with each other. It requires open discussion and not misleading or undermining the process of negotiation by their actions (whether employer or employee). 4 Parties to employment relationship to deal with each other in good faith (1) The parties to an employment relationship specified in subsection (2) (a) must deal with each other in good faith; and (b) without limiting paragraph (a), must not, whether directly or indirectly, do anything (i) to mislead or deceive each other; or (ii) that is likely to mislead or deceive each other. Good faith

© New Zealand Payroll Practitioners Association, Sep 2024, Ver 12

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