The Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Act 2025 was inserted into section 64(2A) & 64(5)(b) of the Employment Relations Act 2000, and became effective 30 March 2025.
In summary, these changes have imposed more onerous and/or heightened legal obligations on employers to keep and provide easy access to a copy of an employee’s employment agreement.
The new changes include the following:
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Making it clear that it is the employer’s obligation to retain a copy of an employee’s employment agreement, terms and conditions of employment, or an intended employment.
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Making it clear that an employer cannot defer the obligation to retain a copy of an employee’s employment agreement to the employee.
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Making it clear that the employer’s copy of the employee’s employment agreement must be readily accessible.
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Strengthening the powers of the Labour Inspector to enforce compliance, including seeking penalty action against an employer for related breaches, for example - giving an employer written notice of the breach, along with seven [7] working days to the employer remedy the breach by providing a copy of the employment agreement.
The changes bolster previous legal obligations on employers concerning the retention, provision and access to copies of employment agreements for their employees.
Employers should take active steps to consider their internal processes around the storage, security, privacy and accessibility of their employment agreements (and corresponding staff records), including ensuring that their employment agreements with staff are signed and up to date in terms of the various legal changes that have been introduced over recent years.
We strongly recommend using the employment agreement builder as part of the Employers Toolbox, which comprises a series of mandatory and optional up-to-date legally compliant clauses, using the e-sign function for parties to sign off and the cloud-based staff document storage system to organise and control access.
Remember any electronically signed document must have the ability to prove the document's authenticity in that it has not been modified or doctored since signing. The best and industry standard in this being the use of a digital certificate. If you are not sure, ask your provider.