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Employment Relations Act 2000

Flexible working short-term for people affected by family violence - Duties of employer

69ABF: Grounds for refusal of request by employer

You could also call this:

“When a boss can say no to a worker's request for changes due to family violence”

You can ask your employer to change your working arrangements if you have experienced domestic violence. Your employer might refuse your request for two reasons. First, if you don’t give them the proof they asked for within 10 working days after they get your request. Second, if they can’t reasonably make the changes you want because of certain reasons.

The reasons your employer might not be able to make the changes are:

They can’t change how the work is done with the staff they have now. They can’t hire more people to help. It would make the quality of work worse. It would make how well the work is done worse. There’s not enough work to do during the times you want to work. They are planning to make big changes to how the business works. It would cost too much money. It would make it harder to give customers what they need.

Your employer can’t say no just because you’re part of a group agreement at work (called a collective agreement), even if the changes you want don’t match what the agreement says.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS186659.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Family and relationships > Children and parenting
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69ABEA: Proof of family violence, or

“An employer can ask you to show proof that you have been hurt by someone in your family, but there are rules about when and how they can do this.”

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69ABG: Employee has choice of procedure at initial stage, or

“If you think your boss didn't follow the rules about flexible working, you can choose how to get help.”

Part 6AB Flexible working short-term for people affected by family violence
Duties of employer

69ABFGrounds for refusal of request by employer

  1. An employer may refuse a request only if the employer determines 1 or both of the following:

  2. that proof required to be produced under section 69ABEA was not produced within 10 working days after the employer receives the request:
    1. that the request cannot be accommodated reasonably on 1 or more of the non-accommodation grounds specified in subsection (2).

      1. The non-accommodation grounds are—

      2. inability to reorganise work among existing staff:
        1. inability to recruit additional staff:
          1. detrimental impact on quality:
            1. detrimental impact on performance:
              1. insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work:
                1. planned structural changes:
                  1. burden of additional costs:
                    1. detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand.

                      1. An employer must not refuse a request just because—

                      2. the request is from an employee who is bound by a collective agreement; and
                        1. the request relates to working arrangements to which the collective agreement applies; and
                          1. the employee’s working arrangements would be inconsistent with the collective agreement if the employer were to approve the request.

                            Notes
                            • Section 69ABF: inserted, on , by section 6 of the Domestic Violence—Victims' Protection Act 2018 (2018 No 21).