The Employment Court of New Zealand (Māori: Te Kooti Take-a-mihi o Aotearoa) is a specialist court for employment disputes. It mainly deals with issues arising under the

Employment Relations Act 2000 The New Zealand Employment Relations Act 2000 (often known by its acronym, ERA) is a statute of the Parliament of New Zealand. It was substantially amended by the Employment Relations (Validation of Union Registration and Other Matters) Amend ...

. The Employment Court is a

court of record A court of record is a trial court or appellate court in which a record of the proceedings is captured and preserved, for the possibility of appeal. A court clerk or a court reporter takes down a record of oral proceedings. That written record ...

and has equal standing to the High Court of New Zealand.

History

The Court of Arbitration was a specialist

employment Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...

court in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

that dealt with

industrial relations Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor union, labor/trade unions, employer organ ...

disputes from 1894 to 1973. The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894 created a compulsory

arbitration Arbitration is a formal method of dispute resolution involving a third party neutral who makes a binding decision. The third party neutral (the 'arbitrator', 'arbiter' or 'arbitral tribunal') renders the decision in the form of an 'arbitrati ...

system for resolving industrial disputes. Part of this involved the creation of the Court of Arbitration. The court heard industrial disputes, made and interpreted

awards An award, sometimes called a distinction, is given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award may be d ...

, and set minimum standards of employment. The court also had the power to set and adjust

wages A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', '' prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remune ...

. The court comprised a

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

, a

union representative A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a trades/labour union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the un ...

, and an employers' representative. These elements continued through a number of successive acts until repeal in 1973. The Employment Contracts Act 1991 established the Employment Court to deal with employment disputes.Employment Contracts Act 1991, s 103

Chief judge

The following is a list of the chief judges of the Employment Court since it was established in 1991.

Case law

*''

Manu v Steelink Contracting Services Ltd ''Manu v Steelink Contracting Services Ltd'' WEC2/98, often referred to as "Steelink", was an important employment case in New Zealand, where an employer tried to dismiss a worker through the back door on the basis that the employee was merely ...

'' (1998) WEC2/98 *'' Grey Advertising (New Zealand) Ltd v Marinkovich'' (1999) AEC 70A/99

References

{{Law of New Zealand New Zealand court system New Zealand labour law Arbitration courts and tribunals 1894 establishments in New Zealand 1973 disestablishments Courts and tribunals established in 1894 Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1973 1991 establishments in New Zealand Courts and tribunals established in 1991