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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Employment Relations Act 2000

Recognition and operation of unions - Access to workplaces

23: When access to workplaces may be denied on religious grounds

You could also call this:

“Sometimes, a union helper can't go into a small workplace if the boss has a special paper and no workers belong to a union.”

You might not be allowed to enter a workplace if you’re a union representative in some special cases. This can happen when three things are true at the same time:

First, the employer has a special paper called a certificate of exemption. This paper is talked about in another part of the law called section 24.

Second, none of the workers in that workplace belong to a union.

Third, there are 20 or fewer people working in that workplace.

If all these three things are true, then the union representative might not be allowed to go into the workplace.

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 It might be out of date or be missing some parts.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=DLM58648.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Business > Industry rules
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22: When access to workplaces may be denied, or

“Union representatives can be stopped from entering workplaces if it might hurt New Zealand's safety or make it hard to catch criminals.”

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24: Issue of certificate of exemption, or

“A special paper can be given to some bosses who can't join groups because of their religious beliefs.”

Part 4 Recognition and operation of unions
Access to workplaces

23When access to workplaces may be denied on religious grounds

  1. A representative of a union may be denied access to a workplace if—

  2. all the employees employed in the workplace are employed by an employer who holds a current certificate of exemption issued under section 24; and
    1. none of the employees employed in the workplace is a member of a union; and
      1. there are no more than 20 employees employed to work in the workplace.