Supportive Legislation of New Zealand Essay

Exclusively available on IvyPanda Available only on IvyPanda

In New Zealand, various supportive legislations exist to assist the employees to gain equal power. These legislations generally gain support from the masses and are hailed and supported throughout. Various legislations in employee relations are evident that focus on supporting the employees from the oppressive employer. Individualization of employees has been an area of debate throughout the country since 2000 when Employment Relations Act was passed. The newly liberalized industrial relations in New Zealand were met with uncertainty and therefore require proper understanding to demonstrate the supportive elements in the acts. This paper discusses three such legislations in New Zealand – Human Rights Act, Health and Safety in Employment Act (HSE), and Privacy Act.

We will write a custom essay on your topic a custom Essay on Supportive Legislation of New Zealand
808 writers online

The main issue related to the present employment relations act is that they are still based on the erstwhile principle of setting minimum standards. Therefore, even the supportive legislations are based on the principle of setting minimum limit for the whole body rather than substantiating a full-length right to the employees. Further, the supportive legislations have assumed a generality aura therefore neglecting many of the details of law. The main aim of the New Zealand laws related to employment is to accentuate best practices, ensure quality management systems and increase performance and productivity. In terms of the first act under discussion, Health and Safety in Employment Act is considered to be a basic minimum right of the employees. This legislation postulates that business owners are required to maintain a clean and safe working conditions. This legislation aims to prevent any harm caused to the employees, contractors, or visitors from hazardous working environments. This was enacted in 1992. The general regulations as mentioned in the act are twofold. First, setting minimum standards for the management team to ensure that hazard preventive measures are taken in order to maintain safety of the workplace. Minimum standards are taken in case of hazard prevention, as all may not always effectively implement complete preventive measures. Second, proper internal auditing and inspection of the safety measures must be done regularly (Department of Labour, 2010).

Under general workplace regulations, all workplaces are expected to take proper precautions to avoid harm and hazards. Prior notification of constructions that might be hazardous must be done. Compliance certification must be taken before any work is done. When there are, young people at the workplace special, care must be taken of them. Further accommodation must be provided for agricultural workers. HSE Act also provides for the safe installation and maintenance of machinery used in the workplace. This area of the act related to hazardous machinery can be extended through “HSE Pressure Equipment, Cranes and Passenger Ropeways) Regulations 1999; and Amusement Devices Regulations 1978” (Department of Labour, 2010). Further, the act also has developed codes of practices for certain machinery like cranes, boilers or pressure equipment, and ropeways. Further, the regulations extend to certain sectors where the level of hazard may be high for instance the extraction sector like petroleum, mining, geothermal, etc. These regulations also control hazardous processes like blasting, electroplating, etc. additional regulations have been formed under this act that regulate the hazardous processes, which are – “Abrasive Blasting Regulations 1958, Electroplating Regulations 1950, HSE (Asbestos) Regulations 1998, Lead Process Regulations 1950, Noxious Substances Regulations 1954, Spray Coating Regulations 1962” (Department of Labour, 2010). Therefore the HSE act entails that there must be proper safety in workplace in order to keep it secured for workers.

The Human Rights Act 1993 (HRA) is an act related to avoiding discrimination in workplace in New Zealand. The aim of the act is to avoid discrimination based on gender, race, color, etc. at workplace. The legislation aims to promote the importance of human rights and advocate respect for fellow employees in New Zealand work environment and encourage and maintain smooth relations among different groups of people in the country to avoid unnecessary conflict (Human Rights Act 1993, 2008).

The functions of the legislation are to advocate human rights in workplaces, through educational discourses of publicity. The aim of the act is to prevent unlawful discrimination that is categorized on the basis of sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief, color, race, ethnic or national origins, disability, age, political opinion, employment status, family status, and sexual orientation (Human Rights Act 1993, 2008). While employing the candidate i.e. during recruitment, discrimination is unlawful. Therefore, discrimination or refusal by the employer to employ any individual on grounds of sex, color, gender, ethical belief, color, race, ethnic or national origins, disability, age, political opinion, employment status, family status, and sexual orientation etc. is illegal in the country. To provide a “less favorable terms of employment” in terms of work conditions, remunerations, or other benefits, amounts to discrimination and therefore is illegal. If an employer terminates the job for an individual due to reasons above mentioned will also face charges of discrimination. Further, if an employee is forced to retire from his/her job due to the above-mentioned reasons, the employer’s actions become discriminatory (Human Rights Act 1993, 2008). Therefore, discrimination in employment is prohibited in New Zealand.

The Privacy Act 1993 was formed and encompasses all people involved in business in New Zealand. The objective of the law is to set out 12 principles that outlay how personal information can be stored, divulged, or gathered. The main purpose of the act is to promote and protect privacy of the individual. This law applies across all companies in both public and private sectors (Privacy Act 1993, 2010). Various documents can be included under the act. These are information stored in “tape-recorder, computer, or another device” or any information that is derived from these sources (Privacy Act 1993, 2010). Any kind of labels or markings that can be a part of that be associated with the organization falls under the Privacy Act (Privacy Act 1993, 2010). All kinds of “book, map, plan, graph, or drawing” or “photograph, film, negative, tape, or another device” that has one or more images stored in it and that can be reproduced are safeguarded under the act (Privacy Act 1993, 2010).

Thus, the paper demonstrates the supportive legislation of New Zealand and shows that the legislations aim at removing all ill-treatments and misconducts at workplaces. The paper therefore discussed three of the main employee relations regulations that are present in New Zealand that give the employees rights and safeguard their interests. Further, the last act (Privacy Act 1993) discussed shows that organizations too have the right to safeguard critical information and documents and reserve rights for disclosure.

1 hour!
The minimum time our certified writers need to deliver a 100% original paper

References

  1. Department of Labour. (2010). HSE Act.
  2. 1993. (2008). Web.
  3. . (2010). Web.
Print
Need an custom research paper on Supportive Legislation of New Zealand written from scratch by a professional specifically for you?
808 writers online
Cite This paper
Select a referencing style:

Reference

IvyPanda. (2021, December 25). Supportive Legislation of New Zealand. https://ivypanda.com/essays/supportive-legislation-of-new-zealand/

Work Cited

"Supportive Legislation of New Zealand." IvyPanda, 25 Dec. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/supportive-legislation-of-new-zealand/.

References

IvyPanda. (2021) 'Supportive Legislation of New Zealand'. 25 December.

References

IvyPanda. 2021. "Supportive Legislation of New Zealand." December 25, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/supportive-legislation-of-new-zealand/.

1. IvyPanda. "Supportive Legislation of New Zealand." December 25, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/supportive-legislation-of-new-zealand/.


Bibliography


IvyPanda. "Supportive Legislation of New Zealand." December 25, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/supportive-legislation-of-new-zealand/.

Powered by CiteTotal, referencing machine
If you are the copyright owner of this paper and no longer wish to have your work published on IvyPanda. Request the removal
More related papers
Cite
Print
1 / 1