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Employment New Zealand
Latest COVID-19 Information
This information is to inform you, your team, clients and stakeholders of important up-to-date information available from Employment New Zealand, during Alert 4.
Key points to note are:
- Employment law still applies to all employment relationships, regardless of the circumstances that we find ourselves in.
- Early Resolution is a free service that helps resolve workplace issues early, quickly and informally.
- There are various COVID-19 financial support schemes available to businesses, depending on your situation.
Employment New Zealand has up-to-date information on these points and much more useful information. We will let you know when new pieces of information or changes related to employment are published.
For employment-related COVID-19 information, please refer to these web pages:
- Employment guide for workers at different COVID-19 alert levels - Answers to frequently asked questions that workers may have at different alert levels including: Health and safety, Leave and pay, Workplace changes.
- Early Resolution – This is a free phone-based service for employees and employers that helps resolve workplace issues early, quickly, and informally, before it becomes too serious or needs a more formal process.
- COVID-19 financial support – Current financial support schemes for businesses, employers and employees including: Resurgence Support Payment, Wage Subsidy Scheme, Short-Term Absence Payment and the Leave Support Scheme.
- Leave and pay entitlements during COVID-19 - Rights and responsibilities regarding pay and leave during COVID-19 response and recovery.
- COVID-19: Guidance for payroll professionals - Key messages for payroll professionals around what employment law looks like in the COVID-19 environment to help answer any questions that are presenting.
- Modifying employment agreements during COVID-19 - Options to deal with the impacts of COVID-19 in the workplace if an employer wants to make changes to existing work arrangements.
- Terminating employment agreements during COVID-19 - Good faith processes to follow for workplace change, and redundancy should only be considered as the last resource, only if no suitable alternative arrangements have been found.
- Vaccines and the workplace - General guidance to assist businesses and workers.
- Temporary changes to parental leave law due to COVID-19 - These law changes allow some workers on parental leave to temporarily go back to work without losing their entitlements.
- Addressing health and safety concerns - Guidance for workers and businesses operating during the different COVID-19 Alert Level restrictions.
- Wage subsidy and Leave Support: Complaints about employers - If you believe your employer is acting unlawfully in regards to the wage subsidy schemes or Leave Support Scheme, here are the steps to resolve your concerns or make a complaint.
- Rules around Essential Services: Find out if your business can open during Alert 4 and other alert levels.
Adding links to your website:
Help us spread the messages by further distributing this information via your online channels. This will help us to reach your valued stakeholders eg: employers, employees, students, communities groups and ethnic communities including migrants and refugees.
We would immensely appreciate it if your organisation could please add these links from the Employment New Zealand website to your website. This could be added to your homepage or other relevant parts of your website, newsletter, training/education and other suitable opportunities that may arise.
- COVID-19 alert levels and the workplace – Important guidance for employees, employers and businesses from Employment New Zealand.
- Employment New Zealand - The leading source of information on employment rights and responsibilities for employers and employees in New Zealand.
For general employment rights and responsibilities information:
Employment New Zealand has a large range of resources for employees and employers.
Minimum rights of employees - The minimum rights of an employee are the responsibility of the employer.
Minimum rights of employees language translations:
- Employment learning modules (8 languages)
- Quick guide: Know your employment rights (20 languages)
- Minimum employment rights and responsibilities booklet (15 languages)
- Family violence leave guide (10 languages)
- Employment mediation quick guide (7 languages).
