Workplace law under a new government – 100 days in, what’s on the horizon?

The first 100 days for the new government has recently ticked over, so let’s take a look at what changes have been made, and what changes are in the pipeline.

Changes to date

The government has already delivered on two of their election promises. The first being to wind back the Fair Pay Agreements framework and legislation, and the second to extend the availability of 90-day trial periods.

While no Fair Pay Agreements had been finalised prior to the framework being abolished, there were a number in progress. These have effectively been binned. In addition, government resources had been allocated to manage the negotiation and set up of these agreements, for example within the Employment Relations Authority. This additional resource is no longer required, and we wait to see whether that will result in a freeing up of resource, or perhaps downsizing of those departments.

The extension of the 90-day trial periods for all employers removes the requirement for an employer to have 19 or fewer employees to be able to utilise a trial period. Now employers of any size can make use of the 90-day trial period, provided they meet the requirements.

What’s on the horizon?

With those two priorities ticked off, the government appears to have a long list of other changes in the pipeline that will impact on employers and employees alike. The Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety, the Honourable Brooke van Velden, spoke to the Auckland Business Chamber on 12 March 2024 and outlined her government’s priorities moving forward.

The first was that the government wants to progress changes to the Holidays Act that have been toyed with for some four or five years now. The Minister acknowledged that the Holidays Act has struggled to keep up with modern working arrangements, and is unnecessarily complex. This reform has been underway for a number of years already, with the Holidays Act taskforce established in 2018 – perhaps an indicator of just how complex the framework is. While the Minister didn’t appear to be suggesting a restart of the review process, she signaled that progress would need to be made more quickly than it had been to date, and noted that any changes to the Health and Safety Act needed to be workable and “a material improvement on the status quo”.

The Minister said that reforming the health and safety law and regulations is another priority for the government. This is an interesting proposal, and seems born out of some frustration amongst the business community that the current health and safety laws and regulations are too complex, impractical and don’t recognise or relate to the reality of running a business. A full review is suggested as to whether or not the health and safety legislation we currently have is fit for purpose. The Minister said the government intends to commence this review with public consultation, which will apparently be released in the coming months.

The third priority that the Minister spoke about is reviewing parts of the Employment Relations Act. As the fundamental piece of legislation regulating the labour market and the relationships between individual employees and employers, any changes to the Employment Relations Act are important.

Included in this proposed review is a review of the current position regarding contractors. The Minister said it is a priority of the coalition to better protect choice and freedom to contract for workers and businesses. This is undoubtedly aimed at the recent line of cases coming from the Employment Court which re-examine the landscape around the line between contractors and employees. The Minister noted that most contractors are happy being in a contracting relationship. This is perhaps oversimplifying the position, given the inherent vulnerabilities which have arisen as a result of the gig economy and the change in the way we work and in New Zealand. As at the date of writing this article the Court of Appeal is hearing the challenge in the Uber case, so watch this space.

The Minister also spoke about making changes to simplify the personal grievance process. She noted that the process of pursuing a personal grievance claim can be slow, costly, and incentivise employees to pursue grievances even where their behaviour has contributed to the employment relationship problem. This is true, in that the current mechanisms for dealing with personal grievances can be slow, costly, and both parties can certainly be incentivised to behave poorly and for improper purpose during that process. The Minister has asked officials for advice to how to simplify personal grievances, including exploring setting an income threshold above which a personal grievance could not be pursued, and to remove the eligibility for remedies if the employee is at fault.

Finally, the Minister spoke about improving the effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness of frontline services for the system she is responsible for. This is welcome news to users of the system, including those of us who navigate it regularly alongside our clients. Improving effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness whilst also cutting costs is an ambitious goal, and it is not clear yet what changes are being considered, but we wait with interest to understand more.

Want to know more?

If you have any questions about this article, please contact our specialist Employment team.

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