Employment agreements and wage records in New Zealand: the paperwork that isn’t optional

The written agreement: s 65 Employment Relations Act 2000

Employment New Zealand puts it in one sentence: “Every employee must have a written employment agreement.” The statutory anchor is section 65 of the Employment Relations Act 2000: the parties may agree such terms as they think fit, but the employer must ensure the agreement is in writing and includes the mandatory content (s 65(1)–(2), text as at 3 June 2026).

Per s 65(2)(a), the individual employment agreement must include:

• The names of the employee and employer
• A description of the work to be performed
• An indication of where the employee is to perform the work
• Any agreed hours of work specified in accordance with s 67C — or, if no hours are agreed, an indication of the arrangements relating to the times the employee is to work
• The wages or salary payable
• A plain-language explanation of the services available for resolving employment relationship problems — including the 12-month period for raising a personal grievance for sexual harassment and the 90-day period for any other personal grievance (s 114(1))

And per s 65(2)(b) it must not contain anything contrary to law or inconsistent with the Act. An employer who fails to comply is liable to a penalty imposed by the Employment Relations Authority, in an action brought by a Labour Inspector or the employee (s 65(4)).

Employment New Zealand’s practical checklist adds items that other statutes pull in anyway: the wage rate must be at or above the relevant minimum wage, the agreement must carry a statement that the employee gets at least time-and-a-half for working a public holiday, an employment protection provision for restructuring situations where it applies, and any extras the parties agree — trial periods, probation, availability provisions.

Before and after the signature: ss 63A and 64

The Act also regulates how the agreement comes about. When bargaining for an individual agreement, s 63A(2) requires the employer to do at least four things: provide a copy of the intended agreement, advise the employee they are entitled to seek independent advice, give a reasonable opportunity to seek it, and consider and respond to any issues raised. “Employee” here includes a prospective employee (s 63A(7)) — the process applies before day one.

After signature, s 64 makes retention the employer’s problem: the employer must retain a signed copy of the agreement (or the current terms and conditions), and must retain a copy of any intended agreement even if the employee never signed it. Since 30 March 2025 the section spells out that the employer’s copy must be readily accessible and that the employee must not hold the only copy (s 64(2A)). The employee can request a copy at any time; failure to retain or provide is penalisable — though a Labour Inspector must first give written notice and 7 working days to remedy (s 64(5)).

The 90-day trial period, as it stands now

The trial period has moved around more than any other clause, so date-stamp your knowledge. Since 23 December 2023, when s 67A was replaced by the Employment Relations (Trial Periods) Amendment Act 2023, a trial provision may be used by any employer. Before that date the section confined trials to a “small-to-medium-sized employer” — one with fewer than 20 employees at the start of the day the agreement was entered into (pre-amendment s 67A text). If your template or handbook still says “under 20 staff”, it is out of date.

The current rule (s 67A, text as at 3 June 2026): an agreement containing a trial provision may be entered into by an employer and an employee who has not previously been employed by that employer. The trial provision must be a written provision stating that for a specified period not exceeding 90 days, starting at the beginning of the employment, the employee serves a trial; that the employer may dismiss the employee during that period; and that if it does, the employee cannot bring a personal grievance or other legal proceedings in respect of the dismissal.

Employment New Zealand adds the timing rule that invalidates most failed trials: “If the employee does not sign the employment agreement before they start work, the trial period is not valid.” The dismissal mechanics sit in s 67B (subsections (2) and (3) were replaced on 21 February 2026 by the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026, restating the position): notice must be given before the end of the trial period (the termination itself may take effect after it), the employee cannot grieve the dismissal as unjustified, but grievances on other grounds — discrimination, harassment and the other s 103(1)(c)–(k) grounds, or disadvantage unrelated to the dismissal — remain open. In all other respects, including pay and access to mediation, a trial employee is treated no differently from any other employee.

Record 1 — the wages and time record: s 130 ERA

Every employer must at all times keep a wages and time record for each employee. Per s 130(1) it must show:

• The employee’s name, their age if under 20, and their postal address
• The kind of work the employee is usually employed on
• Whether the employee is on an individual or collective agreement — and if collective, the agreement’s title and expiry date and the employee’s classification under it
• The number of hours worked each day in a pay period and the pay for those hours
• The wages paid each pay period and the method of calculation
• Details of any employment relations education leave taken, plus any other prescribed particulars

Format is flexible: written form, or any form that can be easily accessed and converted into written form (s 130(1A)) — Employment New Zealand’s phrasing is “on paper or electronically – if the information can be accessed easily”. For employees with agreed usual hours who actually work them, stating those hours and pay in the wages and time record, the employment agreement or a roster is sufficient compliance for the daily-hours item (s 130(1B)). For salaried staff, usual hours include contractual additional hours (s 130(1C)) — but the employer must still record any extra hours needed to demonstrate compliance with minimum entitlements (s 130(1D), pointing at the general record duty in s 4B), which in payroll terms means: if a salary could dip below minimum wage in a heavy week, you need the hours on file.

The retention-and-access rule is built into s 130(2): on request by the employee (or an authorised representative), the employer must immediately provide access to, or a copy or extract of, the record for any time in the preceding 6 years. Employment New Zealand states the same rule from the employer’s side: keep the records for 6 years — even if the employee has left.

Record 2 — the holiday and leave record: s 81 Holidays Act 2003

The second record runs under the Holidays Act. Per s 81(2) (text as at 20 December 2023) the holiday and leave record must show, for each employee:

• Name and the date employment commenced
• The hours worked each day in a pay period and the pay for those hours (with the same usual-hours relief as s 130)
• The current entitlement to annual holidays and the date the employee last became entitled to them; the current entitlement to sick leave
• The dates on which annual holidays, sick leave, bereavement leave or family violence leave were taken, and the amount paid for each
• Any annual holidays paid out (cashed up) per entitlement year, with the date and amount of each s 28B pay-out
• The dates of and payments for public holidays worked, and the hours worked on them; any public holiday transferred by agreement (ss 44A–44B) and the day it moved to
• The date the employee became entitled to an alternative holiday; payments for public or alternative holidays not worked but owed; any payment in exchange for an alternative holiday (s 61(3))
• The cash value of board or lodgings (s 10)
• On exit: the termination date and the holiday pay paid on termination, plus any other prescribed particulars

Its clock is explicit: information entered in the record must be kept for not less than 6 years after the date it is entered (s 81(4)). Helpfully, the holiday and leave record may be kept as part of the wages and time record (s 81(5)) — which is what payroll systems do. Access mirrors the ERA: the employee, an authorised representative, their union, or a Labour Inspector can demand to view it or receive a copy or certified extract, and the employer must comply as soon as practicable (s 82).

Payslips: not compulsory by default — the records are

New Zealand is unusual here, so state it carefully. There is no general statutory duty to issue a payslip. Employment New Zealand’s position: “An employer does not have to give their employee a payslip unless their employment agreement says that they will get one.” What the employee always has instead is the right to the records — they can ask to see or be given copies of their wages and time record and holiday and leave record, which must show their pay rate, hours worked and leave.

Employment New Zealand still describes what a good payslip includes — name and/or employee number, IRD number, gross pay and net pay for the period, total hours worked, holidays taken, plus allowances, bonuses, deductions and leave balances — and tells employees who get no payslip, or a thin one, to ask the employer for the information they want.

The tax side: Inland Revenue’s record duties

Employment records also live under tax law, on a longer clock. Inland Revenue’s record-keeping rule for businesses: “Keep all your records (including those in electronic form) for at least 7 tax years.” Records must be in English or Māori unless IRD approves another language; computer records must be stored in a usable format; and if records are stored offshore, including in the cloud, either the business or its cloud provider needs IRD approval.

For employers specifically, IRD lists the PAYE records that must be kept: wagebook information, copies of PAYE payment information, the tax code declaration (IR330) and tax rate notification for contractors (IR330C) forms employees completed, letters from Inland Revenue about tax code or rate changes, and copies of certificates of exemption, tailored tax codes and tailored tax rate certificates.

So two clocks run in parallel: 6 years under the Employment Relations Act and Holidays Act, at least 7 tax years under IRD’s rules. Retention policy is simple: keep payroll data to the longer clock.

When the records aren’t there: what it costs

Record failures are enforced by Labour Inspectors, and Employment New Zealand publishes the numbers. An inspector can issue an infringement notice of $1,000 per offence, up to a maximum of $20,000 in infringement fees in a 3-month period — and because record-keeping breaches count per employee, a systematic failure multiplies fast. Beyond infringement fees, the Employment Relations Authority can impose penalties of up to $10,000 for an individual or $20,000 for a company for record-keeping breaches.

The quieter sanction is evidential, and it reverses the burden of proof. If an employee sues for arrears and the employer failed to keep or produce a wages and time record, the Authority may accept the employee’s claims as proved — the wages actually paid, the hours, days and time worked — unless the employer proves them incorrect (s 132 ERA). The Holidays Act has the same mechanism for leave: where a record failure prevented an accurate claim, the Authority may accept the employee’s statements about leave taken and paid, absent evidence to the contrary (s 83). Your records are what stands between you and the other side’s recollection.

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