The Employment Court

If either of the parties in an employment problem are dissatisfied with a decision made by the Employment Relations Authority, they can appeal to the Employment Court. The party concerned must lodge a notice of election under section 179 of the Employment Relations Act, in the Employment Court, within 28 days of the date of the Authority’s determination. This is effectively a notice of appeal.

The notice must specify whether it relates to all of the Authority’s findings or just some of them. It must specify what parts of the Authority’s findings are being challenged. The notice must also set out what relief is being sought from the Court.

Unlike the mediation process, the conduct of the parties during an investigation by the Authority can be relevant to proceedings before the Employment Court. In some circumstances, the Court can request the Authority to provide it with a report into the conduct of the parties and, in particular, whether they facilitated the investigation or obstructed it. This report can be used by the Court to help determine whether or not the parties have conducted themselves in good faith.

This is another illustration of how fundamental the concept of good faith is to the Employment Relations Act, and how serious the Act is about enforcing that obligation between the parties:

The provisions relating to the report on good faith are clearly aimed at parties who do not take the Authority’s jurisdiction seriously and are merely “marking time” until they can engage in a conventional legal hearing before the Court or else defeat the other party through delay.

Churchman, P., & Roth, P. (2000, October). NZLS seminar on the Employment Relations Act 2000.

The Act is designed so that as many employment relationship problems as possible are resolved quickly, with the minimum of appeals to the Employment Court. The Employment Court is mostly concerned with difficult questions of law that arise and are referred to it by the Authority, or with issues concerning a large number of employees that might not be suitable for mediation or, again, are referred by the Authority.