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Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002

Miscellaneous provisions

112: Absence on duty not to affect employment rights

You could also call this:

"You can't lose your job for helping in an emergency"

Illustration for Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002

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. This is true even if your employer did not agree to your absence. You are considered to be required to be away from work if you were personally told to do so or if your organisation was told to do so. Your employer does not have to pay you for the time you are away from work helping with civil defence emergency management duties, as stated in the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act.

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

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Government and voting > Emergency managementWork and jobs > Worker rights
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111: Restricted application of Resource Management Act 1991, or

"What happens to environment rules during an emergency"

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

"How emergency groups can get back costs for helping each other"

Part 7Miscellaneous provisions

112Absence on duty not to affect employment rights

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

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