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Employment Relations Act 2000

Institutions - Employment Court

195: Non-attendance or refusal to co-operate

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“Going to court as a witness: you must attend and co-operate or you might be fined”

If you are called as a witness to the Employment Court, you must go to the court when asked. You also have to bring any documents or things the court asks for. If you do not go to the court or bring the documents without a good reason, you can be fined up to $5,000. You must also answer questions the court asks you, unless you have a good reason not to. If you refuse to answer without a good reason, you can be fined. Before you can be fined, you must have been paid or offered the amount of money fixed under clause 6 of Schedule 2 or clause 7 of Schedule 3, which tells you how much you should get for going to court as a witness.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM60994.

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Crime and justice > Courts and legal help Work and jobs > Worker rights

Part 10 Institutions
Employment Court

195Non-attendance or refusal to co-operate

  1. Every person commits an offence, and is liable on conviction by the court to a fine not exceeding $5,000, who, after being summoned under this Act as a witness,—

  2. refuses or neglects, without sufficient cause, to attend as a witness before the Authority or the court or to produce to the Authority or the court any books, papers, documents, records, or things required by the summons to be produced; or
    1. refuses, without sufficient cause, to be sworn or to give evidence or, having been sworn, refuses to answer any question that the person is lawfully required by the Authority or the court to answer concerning the proceedings.

      1. No person summoned under this Act as a witness is liable to a fine under this Act unless there has been paid or tendered to that person in accordance with clause 6 of Schedule 2 the amount fixed under subclause (3) of that clause or in accordance with clause 7 of Schedule 3 the amount fixed under subclause (3) of that clause.

      Compare
      • 1991 No 22 s 127