Posted on March 5, 2026

This is the last in our series of updates on the significant changes to New Zealand’s employment laws, brought about by the introduction of the Employment Relations Amendment Bill, which became law on 21 February 2026.  We cover off the last two changes in this final update. 

Details and implications of how the changes will affect workplaces who have a collective agreement in force, and may impact on remedies awarded to employees who bring personal grievances, are below.

Change	When?	What do employers need to know?	What should employers do now?
Employee Behaviour and Remedies
When the ERA or Employment Court is awarding remedies to an employee for a personal grievance: • There will be no remedies if the employee’s contributing actions were “serious misconduct”. • There will be no reinstatement or compensation for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings if the employee contributed to the situation.	21 February 2026	The changes are likely to add complexity (and cost) to ERA investigations and Employment Court proceedings until (at least) the Employment Court has provided guidance on what amounts to serious misconduct. Badly behaved employees may attempt to collect extra financial remedies by bringing breach of contract claims (as well as their personal grievance).	Now would be a good time to review disciplinary policies and/or misconduct clauses in employment agreements, to ensure “serious misconduct” definitions are clear and in line with the most up to date legal precedents, and that policies for dealing with serious misconduct are not overly burdensome. Again, checking that employment agreements do not lend themselves too easily to breach of contract claims would be wise.
Collectives - End to 30-Day Rule
New employees in roles covered by a collective employment agreement (CA) will no longer be employed on the CA terms for the first 30 days of their employment.	21 February 2026	The 30-day rule has yo-yoed in and out of employment legislation since 2000, depending on the Government. This is the latest removal of the rule. Employers will still need to give a new employee (whose role is covered by a CA) information about the CA, the union, and a copy of the CA. While the changes are silent on this point, if the 30-day rule has been incorporated as a term of a CA, the ERA and Employment Court may interpret that as a term that must still be complied with.	Before ceasing the 30-day rule, employers should check the relevant CA does not include the 30-day rule as a term of the agreement.