Employee Remuneration Disclosure

The Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill received royal assent on Aug 26 is now in effect.

The changes affect the Employment Relations Act 2000, and makes it illegal for an employer to take "adverse conduct" against an employee for disclosing any details around their remuneration to another person.

The premise of the amendment if to promote transparency and fairness around pay equity and reduce pay-based discrimination, such as gender and ethnic pay gaps.

Many employment agreements historically have confidentiality clauses disallowing employees from discussing or disclosing details around wages and salary, and while agreements with such clauses don't need to be screwed up and thrown away, attempting to enforce such a clause would now be deemed unlawful.

Remuneration for the purpose of clarity includes pretty much any form of payment for work done including all bonuses and commissions. It only doesn't include any benefits received as an owner of the company.

Adverse conduct in the words of the Act includes any such action which has a 'detrimental effect' on an employee's employment, job performance, or job satisfaction.

The Act now allows for a new specific ground to raise a personal grievance being "adverse conduct for remuneration disclosure reason", although the onus on the employee is to prove that such adverse conduct has taken place, and that on a balance of probabilities, that the remuneration disclosure was not the substantial reason for the action.

Our employment agreement templates have been updated already to accommodate the changes.