We're often asked how long does an employer need to keep employment records for, and exactly what records to keep?
With the recent update to The Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Act 2025 it's a very pertinent question to be clear on right now.
Essentially employers have a legal obligation to retain personnel records for 6 years, and payroll data for 7. This includes current and former employees.
The law requires you to be able to readily produce accurate time and wage records, along with holiday and leave records. An employer can retain any information on staff it needs to achieve this and prove they're meeting minimum standards. The employer may also track other personal information provided they have good reason to. It is not a legal requirement to provide employees with payslips but if staff ask for earnings information you need to be able to provide it upon demand.
Any information stored needs to be held privately and securely, and be made "readily accessible" to the employee upon request by themselves, their representative, Immigration Officials of MBIE or the Labour Inspectorate, as per the new Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Act 2025.
Such information can be stored in physical or electronic format, but it must be able to be printed if required. If a Labour Inspector formally requests such information you now only have 7 days to comply or infringement notices can be issued.
Aside from basic record keeping you are also well advised to make and retain any documentation around payment or leave agreements. Such as leave forms, cashing out leave, alternative holidays, days in lieu and such like. Generally, modern payroll systems store enough information for the compliance questions around holidays and obviously payments, but when you're faced with challenges regarding accuracy and agreement with staff, you need to be able to prove your case. Without records it's only your word against theirs.
If you don't use the Staff record keeping module in your
Employers Toolbox we strongly recommend you start doing so. With unlimited cloud document storage and free to use even with a demo account it could save you huge headaches and infringement fees!