News and releases

The Government is putting in place a range of immigration policy changes to help fill labour shortages in the horticulture and viticulture industries while ensuring New Zealanders, who have lost jobs due to COVID-19, have the chance to find new employment.

The Government has established class exceptions for border entry for a limited number of veterinarians, deep sea fishing crew, as well as agricultural and horticultural machinery operators.

Bullying and harassment (including sexual harassment) at work are complex problems, which can have significant impacts on workers, businesses, wider community, and the economy.

Parliament has voted to pass the Equal Pay Amendment Bill, which lays out a simple and accessible process to raise and consider claims of systemic sex-based pay discrimination in female-dominated workforces.

The Government is establishing 15 independent Regional Skills Leadership Groups to better manage changing skills and workforce needs in our regions and cities and to support the recovery of labour markets.

New Zealand remains in Alert Level 4 and all New Zealanders should continue to stay home to save lives. Only businesses that are essential can operate premises for workers who cannot work from home during the Alert Level 4 period.

The government has decided that some rules for collective bargaining will be temporarily modified in the Employment Relations Act while the current Epidemic Notice is in place.

The Government has introduced the Screen Industry Workers Bill to Parliament. The Bill proposes a new model, developed by industry and supported by Government, to allow screen industry contractors to bargain collectively.

Online advertisements fell by 0.3 per cent in the December 2019 quarter, after a 0.7 per cent decrease in the September 2019 quarter.

The Government is considering the recommendations of the Retirement Commissioner’s review into New Zealand’s retirement income policies, which was released on 29 January 2020.