What's on the horizon - time for change?

Workplace law is evolving quickly, and it’s more important than ever for employers to stay informed to ensure compliance and uphold best practice.

Below summarises key take aways from our recent joint webinar with Pillar Consulting on:

• Workplace legislation that has passed, is in progress, or has been signalled
• Key developments relevant to practitioners advising on employment and immigration matters
• Practical guidance to help employers stay competitive and manage risk and compliance in today’s evolving business landscape

Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987

The following changes apply in respect of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987 from 1 July 2025:

• Weeks spent on preterm baby payments will added to the standard 26-week entitlement to primary carer leave. This change ensures families with preterm babies have more time and financial support.
• If a person receives a preterm baby payment, their parental leave payments will start on the date their parental leave begins or on the baby’s expected due date.
• Absences that do not disrupt the normal pattern of an employee’s employment will not impact eligibility for parental leave payments.
• More broad meaning of “primary carer” to include overseas adoptive parents, surrogacy and customary Māori adoption.
• Entitlement to parental leave payments remain even if an eligible person stops working within a ‘reasonable period’.

Message for employers: If you have a parental leave query, would like your parental leave policy reviewed or needed assistance to ensure your payroll is set up correctly, please feel free to get in touch with one of our employment specialists here.

The Privacy Amendment Act 2025

From 1 May 2026, Information Privacy Principle 3A will form part of the Privacy Act 2020 and states

• If an agency collects an individual’s personal information indirectly or directly from someone other than the person themselves, then that agency is required to take reasonable steps to tell the person, unless an exception applies. 
• Exceptions, among other reasons, include that the information is publicly available, it will not prejudice the interests of the person, it is not practical to do so, non-compliance is necessary for other prevailing interests or that it would cause a serious threat to health and safety. 

Message for employers: With increased privacy matters before the privacy tribunal, we urge you to get in touch if you are unsure whether your organisation has been compliant with the new IPP 3A as fines apply for non-compliance.

Holidays Act Reform

Cabinet intends to repeal and replace the Holidays Act 2003 with a new Act by the end of term. The purpose of this is to provide employers with greater clarity on leave calculations making it easy to understand and apply. The proposed changes are:

• Shift to pro rata sick leave. Employees would earn leave entitlements that are a direct proportion to their contracted hours.
• Casual employees would not be able to accrue sick leave or annual leave. They will be paid 12.5% of their pay for each hour worked to compensate for this.
• Sick leave would be taken in hours if an employee did not want to use a full-day’s entitlement.
• Bereavement leave and family violence leave would be accessible from the first day of employment.
• New parents will receive their full pay of annual leave when they return from parental leave.
• Mandatory itemised pay statements each pay period to show pay and leave in a transparent and easy to understand way.
• Ability to cash up 25% of the total annual leave balance per year
• The same hourly leave pay rate will be used for all types of leave.
• Fixed allowances will also continue to be paid in full during leave.
• Alternative holidays are also proposed to shift to hours-based accrual.
• Clearer test for determining an “otherwise working day” for public holiday entitlements.
• Notice period for annual closedowns to 21 days
• Contracts and agreements to include sufficient information about rosters or hours

Message for employers:  The Bill has not yet been introduced but once introduced, it will be open for public submissions where you can provide your feedback on the suggested changes. We encourage you to sign up to our newsletter here if you want to be notified when submissions open or receive some directions from us when the bill is passed into law to ensure that you are complaint with the changes.

The Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Act 2025

From 27 August 2025 onwards:

• Employees are entitled to disclose their remuneration to any person if they wish to.
• Employers can’t take action against staff for sharing their remuneration details.
• If an employee is treated unfairly (for example being dismissed or negatively impacted at work) because they talked about their remuneration, they can raise a personal grievance.

Message for employers: Pay secrecy clauses are void and cannot be relied upon. You should remove these from your templates. If you have any matters involving disclosure of pay, please get in touch for advice.

The Employment Relations Amendment Bill 2025

The Bill proposes:

• A new contractor gateway test with clear criteria to distinguish employees and contractors.
• Removing all remedies where the employee has contributed to their dismissal due to actions amounting to serious misconduct.
• That procedural defects in a dismissal process will no longer automatically result in a finding of unjustified dismissal, if those defects did not actually cause unfairness to the employee. This change is intended to give employers more certainty and reduce the risk of personal grievance claims based on technicalities, especially where the employee was treated fairly despite the procedural error.
• Removing the legislative right for employees earning $180,000 annually gross from bringing an unjustified dismissal claim unless their employment agreement allows them to do so.
• Removing the 30-day rule that requires new employees whose work is covered by a Collective Agreement (CA) to commence employment on the terms of the CA for the first 30 days of employment.

You can read our article for more information on these changes including our advice for employers: Major Shake-Up in Employment Law – What Employers Need to Know about the Employment Relations Amendment Bill 2025

Crimes (Theft by Employer) Amendment Act 2025

• On 14 March 2025, it became a criminal offence for employers to intentionally withhold wages, salaries, or other monetary entitlements from employees without a reasonable excuse. 

Pay Equity changes

• In May 2025, the threshold for female-dominated work increased to 70%. Existing pay equity claims were discontinued, and new rules were introduced for comparators, phasing, and the removal of back-pay and review clauses.

Partial strike pay deductions

• As of 1 July 2025, employers can deduct pay for partial strikes by employees by providing written notice and make a proportionate or 10 per cent deduction to their pay.

Immigration Law

The Fiscal Sustainability & System Integrity Amendment Bill

• The Bill is anticipated to come into effect soon and will further impact workplace law. The Bill proposes to give the government authority to expand levy charges to employers hiring migrant workers and education providers where migrant students study. It will become a criminal offence for employment-related persons to receive or seek a premium for employment by their migrant employees. An employment-related person can be an employer, potential employer, agent of an employer or potential employer, or a person involved in the recruitment for the migrant employee victim. The sentence for this can be up to 7 years in prison and/or a fine not exceeding $100,000 for the employment-related person. The bill also seeks to increase the chances for a migrant to be deported irrespective of whether they are charged or discharged on conviction for an offending.

The Worker Protection (Migrant and other employees) Act 2023

• Employers may be stood down or given a fine under this Act for not complying with visa conditions or visa application process requirements. The total number of fines issued under this Act has increased significantly from $63,000 between 2023 - 2024 to $395,000 for 2024-2025 period. We can expect that Immigration New Zealand (INZ) will continue to impose fines.

Good faith obligations toward migrant workers

• Employers should continue to consider their statutory good faith obligations which requires them to be constructive, communicative, responsive and active in maintaining an employment relationship with their migrants.

Student Visa

• As of 3 November 2025, student visa holders who have a limit to their working hours in their visa conditions but want to work additional hours need to apply for a variation of condition to INZ.

Residence median rate

• As of 18 August 2025, the residence median wage rate increased to $33.65 per hour.

Job check application form

• From 29 September 2025, there will be additional questions in the job check application form that includes reasons of why a role is needed, the number of employees in the business and the number of employees that are New Zealand citizens and residents.

Departing from the use of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupation (ANZSCO)

• The ANZSCO standard has been consistently applied in New Zealand and Australia. On 24 November 2024, the government has announced that ANZSCO will be replaced with the National Occupation List (NOL). We expect that ANSCO will be completely replaced by NOL between 2026 and 2027.
• However, at present, INZ allows migrant employees in roles that are skill level four to five to benefit as if their role was recognised as NOL levels one to three if their three-year maximum period of stay ends before November 2025. In this case, workers in these roles will be able to extend their stay for a further two years.

NEW Global Workforce Seasonal Visa (GWSV) and Peak Seasonal Visa (PSV) categories

• To help address labour shortages during peak seasons, INZ have introduced GWSV and PSV. Both visas sit under the Accredited Employer Work visa and neither visas can support dependents or partners.

Message for Employers: If you have any questions or need any assistance with INZ compliance, please contact us for expert immigration advice and guidance.

Drug and Alcohol Testing

Changes to drug detection limits

• In 2023, a new drug testing standard was announced, which is known as AS/NZS 4308:2023. It replaces AS/NZS 4308:2008 . The new standard sets out procedures for urine specimen collection, storage, handling, onsite drug screening tests and, if required, dispatch to a laboratory. There are also lower thresholds for certain drugs, like cocaine and benzodiazepines, and updated procedures for documenting results. There is a three-year transition period ending in November 2026 for all businesses to implement these two standards and we are still awaiting confirmation from testing agencies that they are now using the new standard.

Urine and oral fluid testing

• The pros and cons between utilising urine and oral fluid testing vary depending on the circumstances and reasons for testing. Urine testing is used for pre-employment and random testing, as it can detect prior use up to several days. Whereas oral fluid testing is suited for post incidents or where you have reasonable cause to test an employee as it detects recent use only.

Operational impacts

• Employers should have their drug and alcohol polices updated to ensure they are compliant with the new detection limit standards and are equipped to confront issues involving medications that can cause impairment.

Risk management

• Employers should assess whether a lapse in concentration or coordination poses a risk to the health and safety of themselves and others.

Medicinal cannabis

• Employers need to consider health and safety, and risk management obligations on how to manage employees taking medicinal cannabis for health-related reasons. The focus should be on the risk of impairment and consideration of fitness-for-duty assessment for safety critical roles.

Workplace culture

• Having good workplace culture is central to an employer’s statutory health and safety obligation. Fostering a supportive environment where employees can voice their concerns without any repudiatory action is vital for managing risks.

 

Message for employers: We can assist to ensure your drug and alcohol, and health and safety policies are up to date and fit for purpose ensuring that they still meet your current business needs.

If you would like to watch the full presentation, you can do so here: What's on the Horizon Time for Change - YouTube

Disclaimer: We remind you that while this article provides commentary on employment law topics, it should not be used as a substitute for legal or professional advice for specific situations. Please seek guidance from your employment lawyer for any questions specific to your workplace.