A visit from the Labour Inspectorate: what NZ employers are asked to show

What a Labour Inspector can do

The Labour Inspectorate, part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, enforces minimum employment standards: the minimum wage, holidays and leave, written agreements, deductions from pay and records. Each inspector's powers are in section 229 of the Employment Relations Act 2000. An inspector can:

• enter, at any reasonable hour, any premises where people are employed, or where the inspector has reasonable cause to believe they are;
• interview anyone there, and any employer or employee;
• require you to produce, and then inspect and copy, your wages and time records, holiday and leave records, any other document showing what staff are paid, and any other document the inspector reasonably believes will help show whether you have complied;
• require you to supply a copy of an employee's wages and time record, holiday and leave record or employment agreement; and
• question you about whether you are meeting the law.

There are limits. A private home can be entered only with an occupier's consent or a warrant from a judge (sections 230 and 231). Nobody has to give an answer that would incriminate them. But obstructing, delaying or deceiving an inspector without reasonable cause is an offence under section 235, with a fine of up to $10,000.

The time limits are short. Records an inspector asks to see during a visit are produced while they are with you, or within 10 working days if that is not practicable. A requirement to supply copies, which needs no visit, is met immediately, or within 10 working days if that is not practicable. Missing either deadline without reasonable cause can bring a penalty, and missing the second is also an infringement offence.

What a visit looks like, and what to have ready

Employment New Zealand says inspectors visit after a complaint or as a routine check, at a reasonable time. Anyone who sees or suspects a breach can complain. Inspectors carry official warrants that confirm who they are, so ask to see one. If you are not there, they can leave notice and carry on.

Expect the inspector to look at your documents and to speak with your staff. Employment New Zealand's list of what to have ready is short:

• Signed employment agreements for every employee. You must keep a signed copy (section 64), and an unwritten agreement is itself an infringement offence.
• The wages and time record: hours worked each day in each pay period, the pay for those hours and how it was calculated (section 130).
• The holiday and leave record: entitlements, leave taken and what was paid for it (Holidays Act 2003, section 81).
• The hours actually worked, including the extra hours of salaried staff where they matter for the minimum wage. Our article on wage and time records for employers sets out every field.

Keep the records for six years, including for people who have left. Answer questions plainly, and if a record is incomplete, say so and say what you are doing about it. An inspector can also ask for whatever else they reasonably believe will help, so rosters, timesheets, payslips and bank records of pay runs are worth being able to find quickly.

What can follow: notices, arrears and penalties

Where an inspector finds a breach, the Act gives them a range of tools, from a notice to fix it to proceedings in the Employment Court.

The infringement offences are all about paperwork: no written employment agreement, no signed copy kept, no wages and time record, no holiday and leave record, or copies not supplied in time. A business with poor records for every employee can face a notice for each, which is why the $20,000 cap exists.

Arrears are often the larger cost. A claim for unpaid wages can reach back six years (section 142), and if you did not keep or produce a record and that hurt the employee's ability to claim accurately, section 132 lets the Authority accept their account of their hours and pay unless you can prove it wrong. In deciding whether a breach is serious enough for a declaration, the Employment Court can weigh whether you kept the records the law requires. Good records do not just avoid infringement fees; they are how you defend yourself.

Improvement notices and undertakings can be enforced by a compliance order, and failing to meet one brings a penalty. If you disagree with a finding, Employment New Zealand on 0800 20 90 20, an employment lawyer or your industry association can help, and the 28-day objection window matters.

The stand-down list for employers of migrants

If you employ, or plan to employ, people on work visas, a breach has a second consequence. Employment New Zealand keeps a public stand-down list, updated weekly, of employers who cannot support visa applications for a set period. That covers work visas, accreditation, residence-class applications and seasonal employer schemes.

A single $1,000 notice for a missing holiday and leave record can therefore stop you hiring through the visa system for six months. For a business that relies on accredited employer work visas, that can matter more than the fee.

A one-hour check of your own records

The best time to look at your records is before anyone asks. Set aside an hour, pick three employees, including at least one whose hours vary and one on a salary, and work through this list:

1. Agreements. Find each person's signed agreement. Check it states their agreed hours, and that any change since, such as new hours or a new role, was agreed in writing.
2. Hours, day by day. For the last full pay period, can you show the hours each person worked on each day? Where hours vary, a roster alone does not do it; our article on rosters and timesheets explains why.
3. The minimum wage check. Divide each person's pay for the period by the hours worked. Every hour must come to at least the minimum wage, $23.95 an hour for adults from 1 April 2026, extra hours included.
4. Holiday and leave. Pick one person's last annual leave and one sick day. Is each recorded, with the date and what was paid?
5. Public holidays. If anyone worked one, check they were paid at least time and a half and given an alternative holiday where it was an otherwise working day.
6. Leavers. Can you still find the records of someone who left two years ago?
7. Speed. Time how long it takes to produce copies for one person. If it is longer than a day, fix the filing now.

Our free wage and time records checklist turns the full legal list into a printable page, so you can run the same check every quarter.

Most gaps in this check are in the hours. Team timesheets from jobtracker.co.nz shows the hours your people choose to share, by person, project and task, with start, finish and breaks on each day, the weeks they marked as sent, and every change after that with its date, and it downloads as a CSV for any period. It does not hold pay, rates or leave balances, and because sharing is each person's choice, it sits beside your wages and time record rather than replacing it. It costs $6.99 a seat a month, GST included, for at least three seats.

Hours you can put on the table