Employment Agreements

Employment Agreements

Employment Agreements

For every employee, there must be a written Employment Agreement, signed by both the employee and the employer. 

There are different types of Employment Agreements that can be used.  The following link explains these - different types of employees

You must be certain that your employees have the correct type of Employment Agreement according to New Zealand legislation.

The New Zealand Government provides help with employment agreements. Click here for their Employment Agreement Builder tool that you can use to build your Employment Agreements.

All Employment Agreements must include at least the following minimum information:

  • Legal names of the parties

  • Description of the work to be performed

  • Location of work

  • Hours of Work

  • Remuneration (how much you will be paid)

  • Time and a half (T1.5) provision for working public holidays

  • Plain language provision of how to resolve employment relationship problems (incl. 90 day personal grievance (PG) period); and

  • Employee protection provision

There must be no contradiction to the self-declaration on good social practice in the employment agreement. These also need to meet the National Interpretation Guidelines.

Legal right to work

You must have records to show your employees are legally entitled to be employed by you, in New Zealand (for example, working permit or New Zealand citizen).

If you have any non-national employees, your records must indicate their legal status for being employed by the company and their respective working permit.

Records

Records of your employees must be accessible for at least 24 months, and you must be able to show that these records exist and are retained.

The Inspector will check your Employment Agreements and any attachments (e.g. schedules) to these Agreements, including all of the above information, during your inspection. These records need to be available at all times.