Collective agreements and unions: what joining means for your pay

What a collective agreement is, and who it covers

A collective covers at least two employees and is made between at least one employer and at least one registered union. Its coverage clause says exactly which work or which employees it applies to. If you are a union member and your work falls within that clause, you are employed under the collective rather than an individual agreement.

Every collective must be in writing, and must include the pay rates, minimum rates or a method for working them out, and how pay may increase during its term. It expires on its stated date, or three years after it takes effect if that is sooner. If bargaining for a new one started before it expired, the old one carries on until it is replaced, for up to 12 months after expiry. You can ask your employer or your union for a copy.

Your first 30 days: the rule that changed in 2026

Until 21 February 2026, a new employee who was not in the union, doing work covered by a collective, started on the collective's terms for the first 30 days. The Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026 removed that rule. Now you can agree an individual agreement from day one, or choose to join the union and be covered by the collective.

What remains is a duty to tell you. When you start a new job on an individual agreement for work a collective covers, your employer must tell you the collective exists and covers your work, that you may join the union, how to contact it, and that joining means you are bound by the collective. It must give you a copy, and it tells the union about you only if you agree. If more than one collective covers the work, it must give you these details for the one covering most of the employees doing that work, and tell you about the others.

Joining a union: the rights and what it costs

Membership is your choice. Nobody, including your employer, managers, colleagues or union officials, can pressure you to join, not join or leave a union, and no agreement can give anyone preference in hiring, pay, training or promotion because of membership. Your employer cannot treat you differently for union activities, such as being a delegate or taking part in a lawful strike.

Members can attend at least two union meetings a year, and are paid ordinary pay for up to two hours of each one held during working hours. Some members can also take paid employment relations education leave.

Each union sets its own fees, usually deducted from your pay and passed to the union. Fees are not tax deductible: the Income Tax Act denies employees a deduction for the costs of earning their salary or wages, a rule known as the employment limitation.

How pay is bargained, and what that means for you

A union can start collective bargaining at any time. An employer can start it only where there is, or has been, a collective covering some of the work. Once bargaining begins, your employer must tell everyone who might be covered, union member or not, within 10 days, or 15 if more than one employer is involved. Both sides must bargain in good faith.

A deal reached at the table is only a proposal until the union members it covers vote to accept, or ratify, it. Strikes over bargaining are lawful only in narrow cases: any collective that covered the workers has expired, bargaining began at least 40 days earlier, members have voted in a secret ballot and notice has been given.

For you, this means pay moves in rounds. A new collective can bring a general increase and a new scale, and in the public sector, bands and steps often sit in the collective; our article on public sector bands and regrades explains how those work.

In Your Career, the pay record keeps each rise with its date, and the Pay page shows what you take home now and what prices have done to your pay since it was last set, so you can see what a bargaining round was worth to you.

Individual agreements beside a collective

If you do not join the union, you are on an individual agreement. Your employer can offer you the same or similar terms as the collective, but passing them on with both the intent and effect of undermining the collective is a breach of good faith. A collective can also include a bargaining fee clause: non-members covered by it can be on identical terms if they pay the stated fee to the union.

Union members can agree extra individual terms with their employer, as long as they are not inconsistent with the collective. The employer must negotiate those in good faith and give you time and a chance to get independent advice, as it would for an individual agreement. If you leave the union, or the collective expires, you move onto an individual agreement based on the collective and any individual terms you had.

Our guide to employment rights in New Zealand covers the minimums every agreement must meet. For questions about your own situation, Employment New Zealand (0800 20 90 20), Community Law or the union itself can help. The demo shows a year of Your Career, including a pay record and a pay review, with no account.

Keep your own pay record, whatever agreement you are on