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Employment Relations Act 2000

Institutions - Employment Court

192: Application to collective agreements of law relating to contracts

You could also call this:

“The court can change how workers and bosses work together without completely changing their agreement.”

You can’t ask the court to cancel or change a collective agreement or any part of it under section 162 (which is applied by section 190(1)). However, the court can do other things instead. It can make an order to pause part of the agreement and tell the people involved to talk about that part again. The court can also tell the people to use mediation when they’re talking about it. The court can even say whether the workers and bosses can or can’t go on strike or lock people out while they’re talking. If the court says anything about strikes or lockouts, it has to say when that decision starts or stops.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM60988.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Crime and justice > Courts and legal help
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191: Other provisions relating to proceedings of court, or

“Rules about how the Employment Court works and what it can do”

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193: Proceedings not to be questioned, or

“The Employment Court's decisions can't be questioned or changed by other courts, except in special cases.”

Part 10 Institutions
Employment Court

192Application to collective agreements of law relating to contracts

  1. The court may not, under section 162 (as applied by section 190(1)), make in respect of a collective agreement an order cancelling or varying the agreement or any term of the agreement.

  2. Despite subsection (1), the court may, instead of making an order of the kind described in that subsection,—

  3. make an order—
    1. suspending some aspect of the agreement; and
      1. directing the parties to the collective agreement to reopen bargaining with regard to the suspended aspect of the agreement; and
      2. in addition to an order under paragraph (a), make an order requiring the parties to make use of mediation in the bargaining required by paragraph (a)(ii); and
        1. in addition to orders under paragraphs (a) and (b), make a declaration that the employees and employers covered by the collective agreement (or either of them) are, or are not, to have the right to strike or lock out available to them, while the bargaining required by the order under paragraph (a)(ii) continues.

          1. Every declaration under subsection (2)(c) must state the date on which the right to strike or lock out is to become available or is to cease to be available.

          Compare
          • 1991 No 22 s 104(2)