Equal Pay Act 1972

Pay equity claims - Facilitation

13ZR: When Authority may accept reference

You could also call this:

"When can the Authority help with a pay problem if someone hasn't been treated fairly or talks have failed?"

The Authority will only help with a pay equity issue if they think it will be useful and one of two things has happened. You need to look at what the Authority says about this in the legislation. The Authority checks if a party has not acted in good faith as stated in section 4 of the Employment Relations Act 2000, and if this has stopped the pay equity claim from progressing.

The Authority also checks if efforts to resolve the issue, including mediation, have failed. If the Authority has already helped with a pay equity claim, they will only help again if the earlier help was for a specific issue. You can see what these issues are in section 13E, such as whether the claim meets all requirements or has merit.

The Authority will help again if the circumstances of the pay equity claim have changed or if the bargaining has taken a long time since the previous help.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS427358.


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13ZQ: Reference to Authority, or

"Asking for help from the Authority to resolve pay equity claims"


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13ZS: Limitation on which member of Authority may provide facilitation, or

"Who can help solve a pay equity claim"

Part 4Pay equity claims
Facilitation

13ZRWhen Authority may accept reference

  1. The Authority must not accept a reference for facilitation unless—

  2. the Authority is satisfied that facilitation may be useful to resolve the issue referred; and
    1. 1 or both of the grounds in subsection (2) exist.
      1. The grounds are—

      2. that a party has failed to comply with the duty of good faith in section 4 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 and the failure—
        1. was serious and sustained; and
          1. has undermined the progress of the pay equity claim:
          2. that sufficient efforts (including mediation) have failed to resolve an issue relating to the claim.
            1. The Authority must not accept a reference for facilitation in relation to a pay equity claim for which the Authority has already acted as a facilitator unless—

            2. the earlier facilitation related only to one of the following issues and the subsequent reference relates to the pay equity bargaining process:
              1. whether the claim meets all requirements set out in section 13E:
                1. whether the claim has merit; or
                2. the circumstances relating to the pay equity claim have changed; or
                  1. the bargaining since the previous facilitation has been protracted.
                    Compare
                    Notes
                    • Section 13ZR: inserted, on , by section 18 of the Equal Pay Amendment Act 2020 (2020 No 45).
                    • Section 13ZR(3)(a): replaced, on , by section 36 of the Equal Pay Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 21).