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Employment Relations Act 2000

General provisions - Demand notices

224: Demand notice

You could also call this:

“A special notice that tells bosses they need to pay their workers money they owe them”

You should know about something called a demand notice. This is a special document that a Labour Inspector can give to an employer. Here’s how it works:

If you’re an employee and you think your employer hasn’t paid you properly, you can tell a Labour Inspector. The inspector might also notice this on their own. This could be about your wages, holiday pay, or other money you should get under the Minimum Wage Act 1983 or the Holidays Act 2003.

Before sending a demand notice, the inspector will give your employer at least 7 days to explain their side. If the inspector still thinks you’re owed money and your employer won’t pay, they can send the demand notice.

The inspector can give the notice directly to your employer or leave it with them if they won’t take it. They can’t send these notices between 17 December and 8 January.

It’s important to know that a demand notice can only ask for money that became due in the last 6 years. Anything older than that can’t be included.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM61448.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Money and consumer rights > Consumer protection
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223G: Withdrawal of improvement notice, or

“A Labour Inspector can take back a notice telling someone to fix something at work, but they can still give a new notice about the same problem.”

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225: Objections to demand notice, or

“This explains how employers can disagree with a notice asking them to pay money to their workers.”

Part 11 General provisions
Demand notices

224Demand notice

  1. A Labour Inspector (or a person authorised by a Labour Inspector to do so) may serve on an employer a demand notice, in the prescribed form, if—

  2. an employee makes a complaint to the Labour Inspector, or the Labour Inspector believes on reasonable grounds, that an employee has not received wages or holiday pay or other money payable by the employer to the employee under the Minimum Wage Act 1983 or the Holidays Act 2003; and
    1. the Labour Inspector has given the employer not less than 7 days to comment on the complaint or the grounds for the Labour Inspector's belief; and
      1. the Labour Inspector, after considering any comments made by the employer under paragraph (b), is satisfied that the employee is entitled to the wages or holiday pay or other money; and
        1. the Labour Inspector is satisfied that the employer is not willing to pay the wages or holiday pay or other money to the employee in a reasonable manner or within a reasonable time.

          1. A demand notice must be served—

          2. by giving it to the employer concerned; or
            1. if the employer does not accept the demand notice, by leaving it in the employer's presence and drawing the employer's attention to it.

              1. A demand notice may not be served in the period commencing on 17 December and ending with the close of 8 January in the following year.

              2. A demand notice has no effect to the extent, if any, that it claims money (being wages or holiday pay or other money) that was payable more than 6 years earlier than the date on which the demand notice is served on the employer concerned.

              Notes
              • Section 224(1)(a): replaced, on , by section 7(1) of the Fair Pay Agreements Act Repeal Act 2023 (2023 No 65).