New Zealand law is precise about employment agreements, and one procedural detail carries unusual weight.
The written agreement is mandatory
Every employer must provide a written employment agreement to every employee. This is a legal requirement under Sections 64 and 65 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 — not merely good practice.
What it must include
- The agreed hours of work, or an indication of arrangements for when work will occur
- A plain-language explanation of how to resolve employment problems, including the 90-day deadline for most personal grievances and the 12-month deadline for sexual harassment grievances
Before you sign
The employer must give you a copy of the intended agreement and a reasonable opportunity to get independent advice about its terms.
Take it. Particularly on the redundancy clause, since there is no statutory minimum.
Trial periods
A trial period can last up to 90 calendar days and is only available for genuinely new employees who have never worked for that employer before.
The detail that invalidates it
For a trial period to be valid:
- The agreement must spell out the trial, its duration, and the employer's right to dismiss during it
- The employee must sign the agreement BEFORE starting work
If you start working before signing, the trial period is invalid — and you have full dismissal protections from day one.
That is a common employer error and worth knowing if you were dismissed during what was described as a trial.
During a valid trial
The employer can dismiss without following the usual fair process and without giving a specific reason, and you generally cannot raise a personal grievance over the dismissal.
What the 2026 amendment changed
The Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026 further restricts personal grievances where there has been poor contributing behaviour by the employee, and bars grievances for unjustified disadvantage under a 90-day trial period in addition to unjustified dismissal.
It also removed the 30-day rule, which had required employees to be employed under any applicable collective agreement for their first 30 days.
Employers must still inform non-union employees about eligibility for collective agreements and union membership within the first 30 days.