Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002

Miscellaneous provisions

112: Absence on duty not to affect employment rights

You could also call this:

"Your job is safe if you have to leave work to help in an emergency."

If you are required to be away from your job to help with civil defence emergency management during a state of emergency, you cannot be fired just because you are away from work. You are considered to be required to be away from work if you are told to be away personally or if your organisation is told to be away. Your employer does not have to pay you for the time you are away from work helping with civil defence emergency management.

If the Director or a Controller tells you to be away from your job, your employer cannot dismiss you just because you are not at work. You will still have your job when you come back from helping with civil defence emergency management. Your pay for the time you are away is not guaranteed.

You might be away from work to help with things like emergencies, and you should not worry about losing your job. The person in charge, like the Director or a Controller, will tell you if you need to be away from work. Your job will be waiting for you when you get back from helping with civil defence emergency management duties.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on 19 May 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM151432.

Topics:

Government and voting > Emergency managementWork and jobs > Worker rights

111: Restricted application of Resource Management Act 1991, or

"What happens to environment rules during an emergency"

113: Recovery of costs by Civil Defence Emergency Management Groups, or

"Getting back money spent helping another emergency group"

Part 7Miscellaneous provisions

112Absence on duty not to affect employment rights

No person who is required by the Director or a Controller to be absent from his or her accustomed employment on civil defence emergency management duties during a state of emergency is liable to dismissal from that employment merely because of his or her absence on civil defence emergency management duties, whether or not his or her accustomed employer has consented to that absence.
A person is to be treated as having been required by the Director or a Controller to be absent from his or her employment on civil defence emergency management duties if the person was so required personally or was required to participate in the duties performed by an organisation so required.
Nothing in this section is to be construed as imposing on the employer of any person any obligation to pay to him or her any remuneration in respect of any period of absence from his or her employment on civil defence emergency management duties.

Compare

s 74