Summary of Part 6A of the Employment Relations Act

Listed below are the key provisions in Part 6A¹ Continuity of employment if employees' work affected by restructuring².

Subpart one and two:

1. The object of subpart 1 of part 6A is to provide protection to specified categories of employees if their work is to be performed by another person as a result of restructuring, including rights to transfer their employment and rights to redundancy entitlements (s69A).
2. Specified categories of employees (identified in Schedule 1A of the Employment Relations Act 2000) may elect to transfer to a new employer on the same terms and conditions as applied immediately prior to the transfer, including service-related provisions (s69I).
3. Employees are provided with sufficient information and opportunity to make an informed decision on whether to elect to transfer to a new employer (s69G).
4. The employee is free to bargain an alternative arrangement with their employer (for example to remain with their current employer) following the provision of information. This must then be recorded in writing (s69H).
5. The employee has the right to negotiate redundancy arrangements should the new employer propose to make the employee redundant. In the event that negotiation for redundancy fails, the employee may apply to the Employment Relations Authority for an investigation and determination (s69N).
6. An outgoing employer must disclose employer transfer costs to a new potential employer in sufficient time for the information to be taken into account, including the number of employees, wages and salaries, hours worked and service-related entitlements (s69OB).

Subpart three:

7. All other employees are covered by Subpart 3. The object of this provision is to provide protection for employees not covered by Subpart 1, if, as a result of restructuring, their work is to be performed by another person. Employment agreements are required to contain employee protection provisions relating to negotiations between the employer and the other person about the transfer of affected employees (s69OJ).

Schedule 1A:

8. Schedule 1A identifies the employees who are covered by the special protections of Part 6A outlined in subpart 1, which includes employees that provide cleaning, food catering, caretaking, orderly and laundry services in specified places of work.
9. There is a specified process by which the Minister of Labour can add to, or omit from, or vary, the categories set out in Schedule 1A through Order in Council. The criteria for inclusion are that the business frequently restructures, the restructuring tends to undermine the employees' terms and conditions of employment, and the employees have little bargaining power (s237A).

1 Excerpts from the Employment Relations Act 2000 are attached in Appendix 1 of this document.

2 Please note the concept of restructuring has two meanings in Part 6A. The provisions of subpart 1 apply to contracting out, contracting in, subsequent contracting, or sale/transfer situations. However, subpart 3 only applies to contracting out or sale/transfer situations