Neil Sands
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden has signalled that she will accept a parliamentary select committee’s suggested amendments to her controversial Employment Relations Amendment Bill, including tweaks to the “gateway” test for contractors.
Van Velden said amendments proposed by a majority of Education & Workforce Select Committee members would strengthen the bill while keeping its core objectives intact. Labour and Greens members of the committee continue to oppose it and call for it to be dropped.
The highly anticipated select committee report was originally scheduled for release on November 24, but that date coincided with a Supreme Court decision that ruled Uber drivers are employees, not contractors, so the release was moved to December 24.
The committee did not say why its report into the bill – which will effectively override the Supreme Court decision – had been moved again to December 8.
Van Velden said she now expects the bill to pass in early 2026.
“The government remains committed to improving labour market flexibility and helping businesses grow, innovate and employ with confidence,” she said.
Gateway changes
The main elements of the bill are the “gateway” test that restricts workers’ ability to challenge their employment status in court, a ban on high-earning employees lodging unfair dismissal claims and tighter rules around personal grievance claims.
The committee suggests raising the threshold for high-earning unfair dismissal claims from $180,000 to $200,000.
Proposed changes to the gateway test include:
- Clarifying that businesses that do not categorise workers as “independent contractors” (such as Uber-style platform-based arrangements) can still access the gateway test if they specify that the worker is “not an employee”;
- Specifying that contracting someone to work the equivalent of full-time hours does not in itself constitute a restriction on working for others;
- Clarifying that businesses would be allowed to vet sub-contractors for particular qualifications or require a criminal record check of a sub-contractor if justified by the nature of the work.
Labour committee members described the bill as “a direct attack on the rights and dignity of working people”.
“We believe the bill undermines the Employment Relations Amendment Bill foundational principles of the Employment Relations Act 2000 and shifts power unfairly towards employers, eroding the protections and stability that have benefited both workers and businesses for a generation,” they said.
‘Dismantling fundamental protections’
Green Party MPs on the committee said the bill pushed the government’s “anti-worker agenda”.
“[It] does nothing to improve the protections for casual, fixed-term and piece rate working people, including contractors and migrant workers,” they said. “The bill will allow employers to dismiss employees without cause or fair process and undermines principles of good faith and equitable treatment.”
In a submission to the select committee, The Law Association of New Zealand (TLANZ) Employment Law Committee said the bill introduced radical change where none was needed and “departs from longstanding principles of fairness, good faith and equality before the law that have guided employment relations in this country for decades”.
“While each individual provision raises important legal and practical issues, the cumulative effect of the reforms risks dismantling fundamental protections that underpin New Zealand’s employment relations framework,” the committee said. “The bill significantly narrows access to justice, removes expert and experienced judicial discretion and arguably weakens safeguards for vulnerable workers.”
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