Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Employment Relations Act 2000

Individual employees' terms and conditions of employment - Specific terms and conditions of employment

67A: Employment agreement may contain provision for trial period for 90 days or less

You could also call this:

“You can try out a new job for up to 90 days, and your boss can let you go during this time without you being able to complain about it.”

You can have a trial period in your employment agreement if you’ve never worked for that employer before. This trial period is a special part of the agreement that says:

  1. You’ll work for a set time of up to 90 days as a trial.
  2. During this time, your employer can let you go from the job.
  3. If they do let you go, you can’t complain about it officially or take them to court.

This trial period must be written down in your employment agreement when you start the job. The agreement will explain how long the trial lasts (remember, it can’t be more than 90 days) and what happens if you’re dismissed during this time.

If you want to know more about how trial periods work, you can look at section 67B of this law.

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 It might be out of date or be missing some parts.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

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM1867204.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Previous

67: Probationary arrangements, or

“Rules about trying out new workers before hiring them for good”

Next

67B: Effect of trial provision under section 67A, or

“This rule explains what happens when a boss ends a worker's job during a trial period.”

Part 6 Individual employees' terms and conditions of employment
Specific terms and conditions of employment

67AEmployment agreement may contain provision for trial period for 90 days or less

  1. An employment agreement containing a trial provision may be entered into by an employer and an employee who has not previously been employed by that employer.

  2. For the purposes of this section and section 67B, trial provision means a written provision in an employment agreement that states, or is to the effect, that—

  3. for a specified period (not exceeding 90 days), starting at the beginning of the employee’s employment, the employee is to serve a trial period; and
    1. during that period, the employer may dismiss the employee; and
      1. if the employer does so, the employee is not entitled to bring a personal grievance or other legal proceedings in respect of the dismissal.

        Notes
        • Section 67A: replaced, on , by section 4 of the Employment Relations (Trial Periods) Amendment Act 2023 (2023 No 69).