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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Wages Protection Act 1983

12A: No premium to be charged for employment

You could also call this:

"Your employer can't make you pay to get a job or to work for them."

Illustration for Wages Protection Act 1983

When you get a job, your employer cannot ask you for money in return for employing you. You do not have to pay your employer to work for them. If your employer takes money from you that they should not have, you can get that money back from them.

If you paid your employer money they should not have taken, you can ask for it back. You can take your employer to the Employment Relations Authority to get your money back. A Labour Inspector, appointed under section 223 of the Employment Relations Act 2000, can also help you get your money back.

A Labour Inspector can start a case to help you get your money back, and another Labour Inspector can finish it if needed.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM74853.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
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"What happens if you break the rules: penalties for not following the Wages Protection Act"

12ANo premium to be charged for employment

  1. No employer or person engaged on behalf of the employer shall seek or receive any premium in respect of the employment of any person, whether the premium is sought or received from the person employed or proposed to be employed or from any other person.

  2. Where an employer receives any amount of money in contravention of subsection (1), whether by way of deduction from wages or otherwise, then, irrespective of any penalty to which the employer thereby becomes liable, the person by whom the money was paid or, as the case may be, from whose wages it was deducted, may recover that amount from the employer as a debt due to the person; and civil proceedings for the recovery of the amount may be instituted in the Employment Relations Authority by the person or, notwithstanding any disability to which the person is subject, by a Labour Inspector designated under section 223 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 on behalf of the person.

  3. Any such proceedings instituted by any Labour Inspector may be continued or conducted by the same or any other Labour Inspector.

Notes
  • Section 12A: inserted, on , by section 62(2) of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 (1992 No 96).
  • Section 12A(1): amended, on , by section 10 of the Wages Protection Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 12).
  • Section 12A(2): amended, on , by section 240 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 (2000 No 24).