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Employment Relations Act 2000

Institutions - Employment Court

187: Jurisdiction of court

You could also call this:

“The Employment Court decides special work-related cases that other courts can't handle.”

The Employment Court has special powers that no other court has. These powers include:

You can ask the court to look at a decision made by the Employment Relations Authority again. The court can also make people pay fines if they break the rules in the Employment Relations Act.

If the Authority isn’t sure about a legal question, they can ask the court for help. The court can also decide if a case should be moved from the Authority to the court.

Sometimes, the court needs to figure out if someone is an employee or a worker under the law. They can do this too.

The court can make people follow the rules about employment agreements. They can also say if someone has broken the law, make them pay money, or stop them from doing certain things in the workplace.

If there’s a strike or lockout and someone gets hurt, the court can deal with that. They can also stop people from doing things that might cause problems at work.

The court can check if the Authority made the right decision. They can give permission for people to search places related to work issues.

If someone breaks the law about employment, the court can deal with that too. They have other jobs given to them by this law and other laws, like the Screen Industry Workers Act.

The court can’t make quick decisions without looking at all the facts (this is called summary judgment).

No other court can deal with these special employment issues unless the law says they can.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM60982.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Crime and justice > Courts and legal help
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186: Employment Court, or

“A special court that deals with work problems and has special powers to help solve them”

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188: Role in relation to jurisdiction, or

“The Employment Court listens to and solves work problems, and tries to help people talk it out first.”

Part 10 Institutions
Employment Court

187Jurisdiction of court

  1. The court has exclusive jurisdiction—

  2. to hear and determine elections under section 179 for a hearing of a matter previously determined by the Authority, whether under this Act or any other Act conferring jurisdiction on the Authority:
    1. to hear and determine actions for the recovery of penalties under this Act for a breach of any provision of this Act (being a provision that provides for the penalty to be recovered in the court):
      1. to hear and determine questions of law referred to it by the Authority under section 177:
        1. to hear and determine applications for leave to have matters before the Authority removed into the court under section 178(3):
          1. to hear and determine matters removed into the court under section 178 or 178AA:
            1. to hear and determine, under section 6(5), any question whether any person is to be declared to be—
              1. an employee within the meaning of this Act; or
                1. a worker or employee within the meaning of any of the Acts referred to in section 223(1):
                2. to order compliance under section 139:
                  1. to hear and determine proceedings for a declaration of breach, pecuniary penalty order, compensation order, or banning order under Part 9A:
                    1. to hear and determine proceedings founded on tort and resulting from or related to a strike or lockout:
                      1. to hear and determine any application for an injunction of a type specified in section 100:
                        1. to hear and determine any application for review of the type referred to in section 194:
                          1. to issue warrants under section 231:
                            1. to hear and determine any application for review of the type referred to in section 237D:
                              1. to exercise its powers in respect of any offence against this Act:
                                1. to exercise such other functions and powers as are conferred on it by this or any other Act, including the Screen Industry Workers Act 2022.

                                  1. The court does not have jurisdiction to entertain an application for summary judgment.

                                  2. Except as provided in this Act, no other court has jurisdiction in relation to any matter that, under subsection (1), is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the court.

                                  Compare
                                  • 1991 No 22 s 104(1)(a), (c), (d), (e), (j), (l), (m), (n), (o)
                                  Notes
                                  • Section 187(1)(e): amended, on , by section 91 of the Security Information in Proceedings (Repeals and Amendments) Act 2022 (2022 No 72).
                                  • Section 187(1)(ga): inserted, on , by section 23 of the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 9).
                                  • Section 187(1)(ka): inserted, on , by section 5 of the Employment Relations Amendment Act (No 2) 2016 (2016 No 62).
                                  • Section 187(1)(m): amended, on , by section 105 of the Screen Industry Workers Act 2022 (2022 No 52).