Employment Relations Act 2000

Personal grievances, disputes, and enforcement - Compliance orders

139: Power of court to order compliance

You could also call this:

"The court can order you to follow the rules if you don't comply with employment laws."

If you do not follow a rule or order under the Employment Relations Act, the court can tell you to comply. The court can make this order if you have not followed a provision of Part 8 or an order made by the court. The court can also make this order if it has already said you broke a rule under section 142B.

The court can order you to do something or stop doing something to prevent you from breaking the rule again. You will be given a time limit to follow the court's order. If someone thinks you have not followed a rule and it has affected them, they can ask the court to make an order against you.

The court will decide what to do and will tell you what you must do to comply with the order. You must do what the court says within the given time limit. If you are an employee, employer, union, or employer organisation, you can ask the court for help if someone has not followed a rule and it has affected you.

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This page was last updated on 20 May 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM60396.

Topics:

Work and jobs > Worker rightsCrime and justice > Courts and legal help

Part 9Personal grievances, disputes, and enforcement
Compliance orders

139Power of court to order compliance

This section applies where any person has not observed or complied with—
any provision of Part 8; or
any order, determination, direction, or requirement made or given under this Act by the court.

This section also applies to a person in relation to whom the court has made a declaration of breach under section 142B.
Where this section applies, the court may, in addition to any other power it may exercise, by order require, in or in conjunction with any proceedings under this Act to which that person is a party or in respect of which that person is a witness, that person to do any specified thing or to cease any specified activity, for the purpose of preventing further non-observance of or non-compliance with that provision, order, determination, direction, requirement, or (in the case of a declaration of breach) the provision that the declaration relates to.
The court must specify a time within which the order is to be obeyed.
Where any person (being an employee, employer, union, or employer organisation) alleges that that person has been affected by a non-observance or non-compliance of the kind described in subsection (1), that person may commence proceedings against any other person in respect of the non-observance or non-compliance by applying to the court for an order of the kind described in subsection (2).

Compare

1991 No 22 s 56(1), (2)

Notes

Section 139(1A): inserted, on 1 April 2016, by section 15(1) of the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 9).
Section 139(2): amended, on 1 April 2016, by section 15(2) of the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 9).