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69H: Employee bargaining for alternative arrangements
or “Workers can talk with their boss about other options before deciding to move to a new company”
You could also call this:

“You can choose to work for the new boss if your job changes”

You can choose to work for a new employer if your job is affected by changes in the company. Before the date you’re told about, you can decide to move to the new employer.

If you choose to move, you’ll become an employee of the new company on the day the changes happen. You’ll keep the same job conditions you had before, including if you work full-time or part-time. You won’t get any redundancy pay from your old employer because of this move.

Sometimes, only part of your job might change. This means you could end up working for more than one employer. Or, your work might be split between different new employers.

The new employer doesn’t need to have other workers doing the same job as you. They don’t even need to have been an employer before. If you choose not to move to the new employer, your current job agreement stays the same.

Here’s an example: Imagine a shop owner has three gift shops. A cleaning company cleans these shops and employs a cleaner to do the work. The shop owner changes things and hires a new cleaning company for one shop. The first cleaning company keeps cleaning the other two shops. The cleaner can choose to work for both cleaning companies - the new one for one shop and the old one for the other two shops.

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Next up: 69J: Employment of employee who elects to transfer to new employer treated as continuous

or “If you choose to work for a new boss, your job counts as one long job, keeping all your work benefits.”
Next

Part 6A Continuity of employment if employees' work affected by restructuring
Specified categories of employees

69IEmployee may elect to transfer to new employer

  1. An employee to whom this subpart applies may, before the date provided to the employee under section 69G(1)(d), elect to transfer to the new employer.

  2. If an employee elects to transfer to the new employer, then, to the extent that the employee's work is to be performed by the new employer, the employee—

  3. becomes an employee of the new employer on and from the specified date; and
    1. is employed by the new employer on the same terms and conditions as applied to the employee immediately before the specified date, including terms and conditions relating to whether the employee is employed full-time or part-time; and
      1. is not entitled to any redundancy entitlements under those terms and conditions of employment from the employee's previous employer because of the transfer.

        1. To avoid doubt,—

        2. the election of an employee to transfer to a new employer may result in the employee being employed by more than 1 employer if—
          1. only part of the employee's work is affected by the restructuring; or
            1. the work performed by the employee will be performed by or on behalf of more than 1 new employer; and
            2. a person becomes the new employer of an employee who elects to transfer to the new employer whether or not the new employer—
              1. has, or intends to have, employees performing the same type of work as (or work that is substantially similar to) the work performed by the employee who has elected to transfer to the new employer; or
                1. was an employer before the employee transferred to the new employer; and
                2. this section does not affect the employment agreement of an employee who elects not to transfer to the new employer.

                    1. Example

                    This example relates to subsection (3)(a). A retailer owns 3 gift shops and engages an independent contractor to clean the shops. The independent contractor employs a cleaner to clean the gift shops.

                    The cleaning contract between the retailer and the independent contractor expires.

                    The retailer enters into a cleaning contract with a second independent contractor for the cleaning of 1 shop, and enters into a new cleaning contract with the first independent contractor for the cleaning of the other 2 shops.

                    As a result, the first independent contractor no longer requires the cleaner to clean 1 of the shops.

                    The cleaner may elect to transfer and become an employee of the second independent contractor in relation to 1 shop while remaining an employee of the first independent contractor in relation to the other 2 shops.

                  1. In this section, specified date means the date on which the restructuring takes effect.

                  Notes
                  • Section 69I: replaced, on , by section 40 of the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2018 (2018 No 53).