Working with recruitment agencies

How agencies are paid

Recruitment agencies are paid by the businesses that hire through them. Employment New Zealand's hiring guide for employers lists a recruitment agency as one way to fill a role, alongside advertising and Work and Income's free service, and warns that an agency "can be costly". The employer is the client and you're the candidate, so a recruiter's brief is to find someone their client will hire. That doesn't make them your opponent, and it's reasonable to ask a recruiter for the pay band early, as Salary negotiation in New Zealand suggests.

Two arrangements look alike from the outside and differ legally:

• A permanent or fixed-term placement. The agency finds and screens candidates, and the employer hires you directly. Your employment agreement is with the employer.
• Temping or labour hire. The agency employs you and sends you on assignments to another business, which directs your day-to-day work. Your employment agreement is with the agency.

You should never pay for a job

Section 12A of the Wages Protection Act 1983 says no employer, or person acting on an employer's behalf, may seek or receive a premium in return for employing someone, whether the money is asked of the worker or of anyone else. In a case Employment New Zealand highlighted in December 2024, the Employment Relations Authority ordered an employer to repay money a worker had paid to secure a part-time job.

RCSA, the professional body for recruitment and staffing firms in Australia and New Zealand, has a guideline on charging job seekers that names section 12A as the New Zealand law to check, and its code of conduct commits members to protecting job seekers from exploitation.

Temping and labour hire: who your employer is

Employment New Zealand calls this a triangular employment situation: your employer (the agency), you, and a third party that directs your day-to-day work (the business you're placed with). All the usual employment rights apply, including a written employment agreement and at least the minimum wage, $23.95 an hour for adults from 1 April 2026.

• You can raise a personal grievance against the agency, the business, or both. Since the Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Act 2019 came into force in June 2020, a grievance can include the business you're placed with, if it directs or controls your day-to-day work. The usual limit applies: 90 days from when the problem arose or came to your attention, whichever is later, or 12 months for sexual harassment.
• Holiday pay can be added to each pay at 8% instead of taken as leave, but only on a genuine fixed-term agreement of less than 12 months, or where the work is so irregular that four weeks of annual holidays is impracticable. It must be agreed in your employment agreement and paid as an identifiable amount, so check your payslip.
• If the business offers you a permanent job, ask the agency how that works before you agree, and get the new employment agreement in writing.

Your CV, your consent

Your CV is personal information. Under information privacy principle 11 of the Privacy Act 2020, an organisation generally can't disclose it unless disclosure is one of the purposes it was collected for, you authorise it, or another narrow exception applies. RCSA's code also asks members to handle information with due regard to privacy and to get adequately informed consent for their services.

The weak point is purpose: registering "to be considered for suitable roles" can be read as permission to send your CV wherever a recruiter sees a fit. Close that gap in writing the first time you deal with an agency:

Duplicate submissions are why this matters. Two agencies putting you forward to the same employer can invalidate your candidacy, and you will not always be told. Applying directly to an employer an agency has already sent your CV to can start the same dispute about who introduced you, so keep your own list of where your CV has gone.

If a recruiter has sent your CV without asking, ask in writing which employers received it and when. Any organisation must respond to a request for the personal information it holds about you within 20 working days, and in most cases it can't charge you. If you're not satisfied, go to the agency's privacy officer, then the Privacy Commissioner (privacy.org.nz). RCSA members can also be held to account through RCSA's grievance process.

What to ask a recruiter

• Who is the employer? Get the name before your CV goes anywhere.
• Can I see the position description? It's what you'll be assessed against.
• Is the role with other agencies, or advertised by the employer too? That tells you whether a duplicate submission is a risk.
• What's the pay range, and is KiwiSaver on top or included? The default employer contribution is 3.5% from April 2026.
• Permanent, fixed-term or temp? For temp work, ask who employs you, the hourly rate, how holiday pay is handled and how long the assignment should last.
• Where is the process up to, and when should I expect to hear?
• Are you an RCSA member? If so, the firm has committed to RCSA's code, and you know where to take a complaint.

Keep control of your CV and your records

• Give agencies a version you're happy for any employer to read. Name, city, phone and email is enough, and referees can wait, as How to write a CV in New Zealand explains.
• Log every submission the day it happens: agency, recruiter, employer, role, date and CV version.
• Keep your own copies of the position description and anything you were told about pay, hours or start dates.
• Tell agencies when you've found work, and ask them to update or remove your details. You can also ask them to correct anything wrong.

Agency scams

Scammers pose as recruiters because a recruiter getting in touch out of the blue is normal. Walk away if someone asks you to pay for registration, training, equipment or a visa, keeps everything on WhatsApp or Telegram, wants your passport, IRD number or bank details before there's an offer, or can't name the employer. Check the agency on the Companies Register (companiesoffice.govt.nz) and ring it on a number you found yourself. The full red-flag list, and what to do if you've been caught, is in Job scams in New Zealand.

Tracking agencies in Jobtracker

On the free plan, every recruiter can be a contact attached to the role they're handling, with calls, emails and meetings logged and a nudge when a follow-up is due, and agency recruiters are labelled as external. On the Move, the paid plan, adds agency tracking: who represents you on each job, every agency alongside the roles it has you in front of, and a warning when two different agencies have put you forward to the same employer.