The Good Faith Code Committee (“the committee”) appointed under section 36 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 (“the Act”) has recently recommended to me that the Code of Good Faith for Bargaining for Collective Agreement (“the code”) be revoked and replaced with a new amended code. The current code came into force on 2 October 2000*.
The committee considered changes that might be required to the code, in light of practices, developments and experiences in applying the duty of good faith and taking into account the amendments in the Employment Relations Amendment Act (No. 2) 2004.
In developing the new code, the committee consulted with individuals, companies, trade unions, representatives from government departments and employer groups.
The committee recommended that I revoke the existing code, under section 38 of the Act, and approve the new code under section 35 (1) of the Act.
I have accepted the committee’s recommendations, with the effect that as of 11 August 2005:
? the existing Code of Good Faith for Bargaining for Collective Agreement is revoked under section 38 of the Act; and
? the new Code of Good Faith in Collective Bargaining is approved under section 35 (1) of the Act.
The new code is available from Department of Labour offices, by phoning the Department of Labour’s Workplace Employment Relations and Health and Safety line on 0800 20 90 20 and on the Department of Labour web site:
http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/goodfaith/code.html
Dated this 9th day of August 2005.
PAUL SWAIN, Minister of Labour.
*New Zealand Gazette, 5 October 2000, No. 137, page 3523