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Emergency Management Bill (No 2)

Information, enforcement, compensation, appeals, and secondary legislation - Compensation, civil liability, and other protections - Employment rights not affected

205: Absence on duty not to affect employment rights

You could also call this:

"Helping with emergencies won't cost you your job"

Illustration for Emergency Management Bill (No 2)

If you are away from your job because you are helping with emergency management, you will not lose your job. You might be helping because someone in charge, like the Director-General, asked you to, or because you are part of a group that was asked to help. Your employer cannot fire you just because you were away from work helping with emergency management. If you are away from work helping with emergency management, your employer does not have to pay you for that time. This applies even if your employer did not agree to you being away from work. You are still protected from being fired because you were helping with emergency management.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1022582.

This page was last updated on 31 December 2025 — View changes

Topics:

Work and jobs > Worker rightsGovernment and voting > Emergency management

204: Limits on protections in sections 202 and 203, or

"When you act unfairly or are very careless, some protections don't apply"

206: Service of documents, or

"How documents are given to people under the Emergency Management Bill"

Part 5Information, enforcement, compensation, appeals, and secondary legislation
Compensation, civil liability, and other protections: Employment rights not affected

205Absence on duty not to affect employment rights

This section applies to a person who, during a state of emergency or transition period, is absent from the person’s usual employment for either of the following reasons:
the Director-General, a Controller, or a Recovery Manager requires the person to carry out or exercise emergency management functions, duties, or powers:
the person is a member of an organisation that the Director-General, a Controller, or a Recovery Manager requires to carry out or exercise emergency management functions, duties, or powers.

The person is not liable to dismissal from that employment solely because of the absence.
Subsection (2) applies whether or not the person’s usual employer has consented to that absence.
This section does not impose on the person’s usual employer any obligation to pay the person remuneration in respect of a period of absence from employment while carrying out or exercising emergency management functions, duties, or powers.

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2002 No 33 s 112