Source: Radio New Zealand
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The government is tweaking its legislation removing the right for contractors to challenge their employment status to make clear that it will not be applied retrospectively.
The Employment Relations Amendment Bill was being considered at Committee Stage on Wednesday night, where members could raise issues about various parts of the proposed legislation.
Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden said it was a “minor technical amendment” to make “absolutely clear” the law was not retrospective and “doesn’t override any court decisions”.
It came just a few months after the Supreme Court threw out Uber’s appeal against treating drivers as employees in November 2025.
But van Velden said the change had nothing to do with the Supreme Court decisions.
She said her officials had made a “minor oversight” over the transitional arrangements between the current law and the new law, and wanted “to make it very clear what the law will be going forward”.
The change would ultimately make a distinction as to which law – the old and the new – would apply when, allowing for split decisions in future cases.
The Minister said if someone took up a claim in the future to be considered an employee in previous work, she did not want a situation where they “may be found an employee under the old law into the future”.
“So we’re saying yes, they would be found an employee under the old law up until the point where the new law applies, where they would be a contractor,” based on whether they met the proposed gateway test.
They would not suddenly become a contractor after the law passed, she said, “that is not actually clear until someone has actually had that challenge through a court based system”.
Any decisions made about employment status before the new law starts would not be affected by the new transitional rules, and any cases filed before the new law starts would use the existing test to consider whether someone was an employee or a contractor.
For cases that were filed after the new law came into force, the existing test would be applied to the time before the law was pased, and the new gateway test could be used for the time after the law was passed.
This could result in a split decision, where a worker may be found an employee before the law changed, and a “specified contractor” after the law changed.
Labour opposed the proposed amendment because it locked in people who were potentially employees to a contractor status based on an arbitrary date, the party said.
Labour MP Camilla Belich spoke during Committee Stage and called for a significant debate on the amendment, given it had not been through select committee.
Labour MP Camilla Belich. ©VNP / Phil Smith
She said the last-minute amendment “further erodes worker’s rights by locking out potential claims by employees, who will be barred from taking claims against their employer once this Bill takes effect”.
“This effectively prevents contractors from fighting to be formally recognised as an employee after the Act has passed. This is hugely unfair to the many workers who may have a legitimate claim and silences their voices.”
The Greens believed the government continued taking sides with massive corporations like Uber, despite the amendment, which the party did not support.
“Uber drivers across the country should be able to benefit from the struggles of the drivers who won in court, and this amendment as we understand it will only extend the fruits of this victory to a small group of people,” said Green MP Ricardo Menendez March.
The upcoming law change came hot on the heels of the Supreme Court throwing out Uber’s appeal against treating drivers as employees.
It followed a case by four Uber drivers who took the ride-sharing company to the Employment Court in 2022 over their employment status.
They argued that drivers should be considered employees rather than contractors and be entitled to benefits such as leave entitlements, holiday pay and a minimum wage.
The Employment Court ruled in favour of the drivers, which Uber appealed unsuccessfully at the Court of Appeal in 2024.
Uber then appealed that decision at the Supreme Court, where five justices unanimously voted in November 2025 to throw out the appeal yet again.
Deputy secretary for Workers First Union, who represented the drivers, Anita Rosentreter, called the legislation the “Uber law” and the “Uber amendment” and the more the Minister denied that, the more clear it became the whole Bill was about “protecting the right of foreign companies to exploit New Zealand workers and deny them the rights the Supreme Court confirmed they’re entitled”.
She said the amendment confirmed that Uber drivers and other gig workers who filed with the Courts could still access wage arrears and backpay from the time they were misclassifed as contractors prior to the potential law change but that it locked them out of future employment rights if the Bill passed.
“This whole Bill is an unprecedented attack on workers’ rights and should not pass in any form.
“It’s an international anomaly, an embarrassment for New Zealand, and it must be reversed by the next government.”
ACT campaigned on amending the Employment Relations Act, so those who signed up to be independent contractors could not then challenge that status in court.
The coalition agreement between National and ACT stated they would, “maintain the status quo that contractors who have explicitly signed up for a contracting arrangement can’t challenge their employment status in the Employment Court”.
Van Velden has said she was creating certainty for businesses and workers with the law change.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
