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Employment Relations Act 2000

General provisions - Powers

229: Powers of Labour Inspectors

You could also call this:

“Labour inspectors can check workplaces, talk to people, look at records, and ask questions to make sure employers follow the rules.”

Labour Inspectors have special powers to help them do their job. They can go into places where people work at reasonable times. They can bring someone from their department or a police officer with them if they need to.

You can expect a Labour Inspector to talk to you and other people at work. They can ask to see important records about pay, holidays, and leave. They can also look at other documents that show how much people are paid.

If a Labour Inspector asks to see these records, you need to show them right away if you can. If you can’t do it immediately, you have 10 working days to provide the information.

Labour Inspectors can also ask about strikes and lockouts. They can question employers about following the law.

If you don’t give the Labour Inspector the information they ask for without a good reason, you might have to pay a fine.

When a Labour Inspector is asking you questions, you don’t have to answer if it might get you in trouble with the law. But you do have to answer their questions even if it might lead to you having to pay a fine later.

Labour Inspectors can go into most workplaces, but they need special permission to enter military areas.

If you break certain laws at work, a Labour Inspector can take action to make you pay a fine.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM61457.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Work and jobs > Workplace safety
Government and voting > Government departments
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228: Actions by Labour Inspector, or

“A Labour Inspector can start a legal case to help workers get the money they're owed from their boss.”

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229A: Investigating question of employment, or

“This law lets Labour Inspectors check if a place is a workplace and if people working there are employees or employers.”

Part 11 General provisions
Powers

229Powers of Labour Inspectors

  1. For the purpose of performing his or her functions and duties under any Act specified in section 223(1), every Labour Inspector has, subject to sections 230 to 233, the following powers:

  2. the power to enter, at any reasonable hour, any premises where any person is employed or where the Labour Inspector has reasonable cause to believe that any person is employed, accompanied, if the Labour Inspector thinks fit, by any other employee of the department qualified to assist or by a constable:
    1. the power to interview any person at any premises of the kind described in paragraph (a) and the power to interview any employer or any employee:
      1. the power to require the production of, and to inspect and take copies from,—
        1. any wages and time record or any holiday and leave record whether kept under this Act or any other Act:
          1. any other document held which records the remuneration of any employees:
            1. any other document that the Labour Inspector reasonably believes may assist in determining whether the requirements of the Acts referred to in section 223(1) have been complied with:
            2. the power to require any employer to supply to the Labour Inspector a copy of the wages and time record or holiday and leave record or employment agreement or both of any employee of that employer:
              1. the power to inspect, and take copies of, any record kept under section 98 of strikes and lockouts:
                1. the power to question any employer about compliance with any of the Acts referred to in section 223(1).

                  1. An employer must comply with a requirement under subsection (1)(c) while the Labour Inspector is with the employer, or, if that is not practicable, within 10 working days.

                  2. An employer must comply with a requirement under subsection (1)(d) immediately after receiving it, or, if that is not practicable, within 10 working days of the date on which the requirement is received.

                  3. Every employer who, without reasonable cause, fails to comply with any requirement made of that employer under subsection (1)(c) or (d) within the period required by subsection (2) or (2A) is liable, in an action brought by a Labour Inspector, to a penalty under this Act imposed by the Authority.

                  4. Where a Labour Inspector alleges that any person has not observed or not complied with any provision of section 130(1) or of subsection (2) of this section or of any of the Acts referred to in section 223(1), that Labour Inspector may commence proceedings against that other person in respect of the non-observance or non-compliance by applying to the Authority under section 137 for an order of the kind described in subsection (1) of that section, and the provisions of that section apply accordingly with all necessary modifications.

                  5. No person is, during an interview or in answer to a question under this section, required to give to any question any answer tending to incriminate that person.

                  6. A person is not excused from answering a Labour Inspector’s questions under subsection (1) on the grounds that doing so might expose the person to a pecuniary penalty under Part 9A, but any answers given are not admissible in criminal proceedings or in proceedings under that Part for pecuniary penalties.

                  7. Despite subsection (1), the power of a Labour Inspector to enter any defence area within the meaning of the Defence Act 1990 is subject to any regulations made under section 93 of that Act.

                  8. A Labour Inspector may recover a penalty under this Act in the Authority for a breach of any provision that provides for the imposition of a penalty and is a provision of any of the Acts referred to in section 223(1).

                  Compare
                  • 1991 No 22 s 144
                  Notes
                  • Section 229(1)(a): amended, on , pursuant to section 116(a)(ii) of the Policing Act 2008 (2008 No 72).
                  • Section 229(1)(c)(i): amended, on , by section 91(2) of the Holidays Act 2003 (2003 No 129).
                  • Section 229(1)(c)(iii): inserted, on , by section 32(1) of the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 9).
                  • Section 229(1)(d): amended, on , by section 91(2) of the Holidays Act 2003 (2003 No 129).
                  • Section 229(2): replaced, on , by section 17(1) of the Worker Protection (Migrant and Other Employees) Act 2023 (2023 No 36).
                  • Section 229(2A): inserted, on , by section 17(1) of the Worker Protection (Migrant and Other Employees) Act 2023 (2023 No 36).
                  • Section 229(3): amended, on , by section 17(2) of the Worker Protection (Migrant and Other Employees) Act 2023 (2023 No 36).
                  • Section 229(3): amended, on , by section 66 of the Employment Relations Amendment Act (No 2) 2004 (2004 No 86).
                  • Section 229(5): amended, on , by section 17(3) of the Worker Protection (Migrant and Other Employees) Act 2023 (2023 No 36).
                  • Section 229(5A): inserted, on , by section 32(2) of the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 9).