Media release
26 March 2015
Clearer employment standards welcomed
Proposed changes to employment standards will make employer requirements clearer, says BusinessNZ.
The Government will introduce an Employment Standards Bill to Parliament this year to clarify employers’ record-keeping
requirements and introduce tougher penalties for breaching them.
The requirements for record-keeping wages, time, holidays and leave are currently not consistent across all employment
legislation, increasing the risk of breaches of holidays and minimum wage legislation.
BusinessNZ Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly says making the criteria for good record-keeping consistent across all
legislation would help employers achieve compliance, and tougher penalties were warranted for deliberate breaches.
He said it was important that the proposed changes did not simply increase red tape for the vast majority of law-abiding
businesses, especially small businesses that already shouldered a high compliance burden.
“We will look carefully at the eventual draft legislation to assure ourselves and our members that these aims are
delivered effectively.”