Keeping accurate records

Employers must keep complete and accurate records of wages, time, leave and other details.

Employees get a paid day off on public holidays if it’s an otherwise working day for them. If they work on a public holiday they’re paid time and a half and may get an alternative day off instead.

As an employer, you must keep wage and time, and holidays and leave records that comply with the Employment Relations Act 2000 and the Holidays Act 2003. In particular, you must be able to show that you’ve correctly given your employees all minimum employment entitlements such as the minimum wage and annual holidays.

Good record-keeping makes sure that an employee's pay and leave are correct, prevents misunderstandings and protects the employer and the employee if there is a problem. Your employees have the right to know everything you are recording on their file and have the right to see these records.

While all the record-keeping requirements may not seem necessary, they’re needed to show a clear picture of each day in an employee’s working year, that is, which days were worked, not worked, on leave and what type of leave, and so on. This information is used to calculate different types of pay for such leave as annual holidays or sick leave, and entitlements such as parental leave.

For employers with fully computerised payroll software, maintaining the records can be easier, but they still need to check their payroll system to make sure it accurately records any changes to employees’ hours and pay.

For employers with manual systems, it can be harder to stay on top of recording everything. If you don’t understand or you don’t think you’re keeping accurate records of everything required, you can contact us.

Timeframes for supplying records to Labour Inspectors

Employers must comply within 10 working days of being required by a Labour Inspector to supply copies of records (or produce records for inspection) if they are unable to meet this requirement immediately.

Failure by the employer to supply the required records within the timeframe is an infringement offence.

A labour inspector can:

  • issue an infringement notice and a fee of $1,000 per offence, up to a maximum of $20,000 in infringement fees in a 3-month period, or
  • seek a penalty at the Employment Relations Authority for each breach of up to $10,000 for an individual or $20,000 against a company or corporate body.

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Page last revised: 08 May 2018

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