Employment
A 52-hour weekly ceiling and dismissal only for just cause
The Labour Standards Act caps working time at 40 regular hours plus 12 overtime hours a week. Dismissal requires just cause, and an unfairly dismissed employee can seek reinstatement from the Labour Relations Commission.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Labour Relations Commission first, with judicial review to the administrative courts; Ministry of Employment and Labour inspects.
- Deadline — Unfair dismissal application within three months of dismissal
- Deadline — 30 days' notice of dismissal or payment in lieu
Governing law
- Labour Standards Act
- Trade Union and Labour Relations Adjustment Act
- Serious Accidents Punishment Act2022
In practice
The 52-hour ceiling was phased in from 2018 and applies to progressively smaller employers, with flexible-hours schemes permitted by agreement. Statutory severance of one month's average pay per year of service is payable on any termination, not only redundancy. The Serious Accidents Punishment Act 2022 created personal criminal liability for chief executives where a workplace fatality follows a failure of safety management, which has significantly changed board-level attention to safety. Collective bargaining is well established, and multiple unions may operate in one workplace with a bargaining-channel unification process.