Restricted shop trading days

A “shop” is a building or place where goods are kept or sold by retail. It includes an auction mart, barrow, stall or other parts of a market. It doesn’t include a:

• private home, where the owner or occupier’s effects are being sold
• building or place where agricultural products, pastoral products, and livestock are being sold by auction
• building or place where goods are being sold to wholesalers or dealers, who will sell the goods again.

The definition of “shop” includes cafes, restaurants and bars because they sell goods (food).

“Goods” includes personal items other than alcohol, which is covered by the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012.

Shop owners are responsible for determining if they meet the criteria. If your shop is listed below, you can open provided your shop meets the required conditions.

If your shop isn’t listed, then you must have an area exemption to open. Or you are opening on Easter Sunday under a local territorial authority Easter Sunday shop trading policy. Otherwise you can’t open.

If your shop is in the premises of a show or exhibition or your shop sells souvenirs, contact us before assuming you can open.

Contact us

Small grocery shop (e.g. dairy, superette or fruit and vegetable mart)

Yes, you can open so long as:

• The only goods you sell are: food, drink, household items, personal items.
• The goods you sell are items people can’t put off buying until the next day, such as baby formula or pet food, and the quantity of goods for sale is no more than needed to meet the needs of people in the area or travelling through.

Service station

Yes, you can open so long as:

• The only goods you sell are: food, drink, household items, personal items, petrol, oil, car parts and accessories.
• The goods you sell are items people can’t put off buying until the next day, such as baby formula or pet food, and the quantity of goods for sale is no more than needed to meet the needs of people in the area or travelling through.

Take-away bar, restaurant, cafe

Yes, you can open so long as you only sell prepared or cooked food ready to be eaten immediately in the form in which it is sold.

Duty free store

Yes, you can open so long as you are only selling duty-free items.

Shop providing services, rather than selling goods (e.g. video rental store, hairdresser)

Yes, you can open so long as:

• You only provide a service, such as renting videos or cutting hair.
• You don’t sell any goods, such as videos or hair products.

Real estate agency

Yes, you can open without any conditions. Real estate does not fit within the definition of goods as defined by the Act.

Pharmacy

Yes, you can open without any conditions.

Garden centre

Yes, you can open so long as:

• The only restricted trading day you can open on is Easter Sunday.
• Your sole or principal business is the supply of plants or garden supplies or both.

Shop at any public transport terminal or station

Yes, you can open so long as you only sell books, magazines and newspapers, or duty free items/souvenirs, or food that has been cooked/prepared and is ready to be eaten.

Shop in a premises where an exhibition or show is taking place. This includes markets, craft shows and stalls at these exhibitions and shows

Yes, you can open so long as:

• The shop/stall must be within the premises of an actual exhibition or show. This means the building/location but doesn’t include, for example, the street which has been closed for the event.
• The exhibition or show must be devoted entirely or primarily to agriculture, art, industry, and science, or any of these. This is quite a strict requirement, and to be considered ‘devoted’ to a show or exhibition a shop must be selling goods that are connected in some way with the show. For example, arts and crafts at an art and craft show, or farming supplies at an agriculture show, rather than general goods.

Shop primarily selling only souvenirs

Yes, you can open so long as the criteria for whether or not an item is considered a souvenir is that it is connected to a New Zealand place or New Zealand culture.

A limited number of geographical areas are covered by exemptions to the shop trading restrictions. These are generally tourist resorts such as Taupo and Queenstown.

Some shops in these areas can open on restricted days, but only if the exemption order allows. Shops covered by area exemptions can’t change them, and no new exemptions can be granted.

Find out which areas have exemptions:

Shop Trading Exemption Orders [PDF, 2 MB]

Contact us if you have any questions about existing area exemptions.

Councils can put in place local policies that allow shops within their area, or parts of it, to trade on Easter Sunday. Once a council has created a local policy, they must notify the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

Email MBIE

Find out which councils have local policies in place:

Local council Easter Sunday shop trading policies

All shop employees have the right to refuse work on Easter Sunday without giving a reason to their employer.

Employers and employees have special responsibilities and a process to follow if an employer wants a shop employee to work on Easter Sunday. This also includes situations where the shop is not going to be open for trading, but the employer wants an employee to work, for example, doing a stocktake.

A shop that opens for business on Easter Sunday in an area where there is no local council policy in place (and no exemption from shop trading restrictions or ability to open with conditions) will be in breach of shop trading restrictions. The breach applies even if they followed the correct process for notifying employees that they have the right to refuse to work.

2016 law change for Easter Sunday shop trading – MBIE(external link)

Employers who want a shop employee to work on Easter Sunday

If an employer wants employees to work on Easter Sunday, they must follow a specific process to let their employees know (in writing) that they have a right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday.

This process must be completed each year an employer wants an employee to work on Easter Sunday. It can’t just be written into the employment agreement.

If an employer isn’t allowed to open their shop on Easter Sunday but still wants shop employees to work (e.g. to stack shelves or do stocktaking), they must still follow the same process. This is because the law change gives all shop employees the right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday.

Employers must deliver written notice to the employee that they have a right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday. This could be:

• a letter or memo delivered in person
• email or group email, or
• in a way that is specified in the employment agreement.

Notice must be delivered at least four weeks before Easter Sunday, but no earlier than eight weeks before the Easter Sunday.

If an employee has started work within four weeks of Easter Sunday, the employer must give them notice (of the right to refuse to work) as close to their start date as possible.

If an employer doesn’t follow the notice requirements and requires an employee to work on Easter Sunday, this is considered to be compelling them to work and the employee could bring a personal grievance.

Employers can use our template letter as a guide when informing employees of their right to refuse work on Easter Sunday.

Easter Sunday trading template letter for employers [PDF, 84 KB]

Employers can’t compel their shop employees to work on Easter Sunday or treat them adversely for refusing to work. A provision in an employment agreement which requires a shop employee to work on Easter Sunday is unenforceable.

Compelling an employee to work includes:

• The employer making working on an Easter Sunday a condition of the continuing employment of an employee.
• The employer using unfair influence on the shop employee to try to convince them to work on an Easter Sunday.
• The employer requiring an employee to work on Easter Sunday without giving them the correct notice of the right to refuse.

Treating an employee adversely has the same meaning as under the Employment Relations Act 2000. This covers a range of negative impacts, including not offering an employee the same working conditions compared with another employee in similar circumstances, or dismissing or retiring an employee.

If an employee thinks that they have been compelled to work or treated adversely because they refused to work on Easter Sunday they can raise a personal grievance.

What is a personal grievance

Shop employees who don’t want to work on Easter Sunday

Shop employees who are given notice of their right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday and want to refuse to work, must give notice of this to their employer.

If an employee is going to refuse work on Easter Sunday they must:

• let the employer know in writing no later than 14 days from the date they received their employer’s notice.
• deliver the notice to the employer. This could be in the form of a letter or memo delivered in person, or by email or in a way that is specified in the employment agreement.

If the employee doesn’t follow these notice requirements, and their employment agreement has a clause stating that they can be required to work on Easter Sunday, their employer can require them to work.

Employees intending to refuse to work on Easter Sunday can use our template letter as a guide.

Easter Sunday trading template letter for employees [PDF, 53 KB]

If a shop employee:

• has started work within 14 days before Easter Sunday, and
• has received notice of their right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday, and
• wants to refuse to work,

they must give the employer their notice as soon as possible after receiving the notice from their employer.

Joyce owns a shop (a supermarket) and employs a large number of staff. The shop can’t open for business on Easter Sunday because the local council doesn’t have a policy in place for this. Even though the shop won’t be open for business, Joyce wants employees who are normally rostered to work on Sundays to come in and do a stocktake. Easter Sunday is not a public holiday, so Joyce knows that employees will only receive their normal pay if they work. And they won’t get an alternative holiday.

Even though the shop can’t open, the Easter Sunday employer and employee rights and responsibilities still apply. Because she wants them to work on Easter Sunday, Joyce must notify the employees of their right to refuse to work at least four weeks (and no earlier than eight weeks) before Easter Sunday. She can’t compel the employees to work or treat them adversely if they refuse. If they want to refuse to work, the employees need to notify Joyce no later than 14 days after they get their notices from her.

A Queenstown cafe will be open for business because of a historic exemption and wants one of its employees to help out on Easter Sunday. Historic exemptions that were made under the Shop Trading Hours Act 1977 remain valid. Therefore, a shop covered by an exemption can still open on Easter Sunday, even in a district without a local policy.

Shop employees now have the right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday. Therefore the employer must notify them of this right at least four weeks (and no earlier than eight weeks) before Easter Sunday. The employer can’t compel the employee or treat them adversely if they refuse. If the employee wants to refuse, they must notify the employer no later than 14 days after they get the notice from the employer.

Geri works in a service station and her employer Greg asks her to work on Easter Sunday. Six weeks before Easter Sunday, Greg gives Geri notice that she can refuse to work. Two days later, Geri gives a notice to Greg saying that she is refusing to work on Easter Sunday. Greg tells Geri that if she won’t work on Easter Sunday she will be dropped from the Sunday roster permanently. Greg is treating Geri adversely because of her refusal to work on Easter Sunday. Geri successfully brings a personal grievance claim against Greg.

Five weeks before Easter Sunday, Hilary was emailed by her employer at the dairy where she works, asking her to work on Easter Sunday. This email also notified Hilary of her right to refuse work on Easter Sunday. Hilary decides that she wants to work (so she doesn’t need to notify her employer that she is refusing to work). Easter Sunday is not a public holiday so Hilary will be paid her usual pay for working on a Sunday (unless Hilary and her employer agree to a greater rate of pay for this day). Hilary will not get an alternative holiday, because Easter Sunday is not a public holiday.

Linda work in a plastics factory assembling goods. Her employment agreement doesn’t state that she can be required to work on public holidays. But she has agreed to work a half shift from 8am to 12pm on ANZAC Day (Tuesday). ANZAC Day is a public holiday, so Linda will receive public holiday entitlements. This includes four hours’ pay at time and a half for the hours she works, and a full day’s alternative holiday (Tuesday is an otherwise working day for Linda). The restricted trading provisions on ANZAC Day have no effect on Linda’s employer (or Linda) because her employer is not a shop.

Lyn and Tony work for Keith who runs the local dairy. They both have set days and hours. Lyn works Monday to Friday and Tony works Saturday and Sunday 8am-4pm each day. ANZAC Day falls on a Sunday. The local supermarket will be closed in the morning due to restricted shop trading. Keith thinks it will be a busy day. He asks Lyn if she can help out Tony and come into work.

Lyn doesn’t normally work on Sunday, so her ANZAC Day public holiday is Mondayised. This means the benefits apply to the Monday instead of the Sunday, even if she works on the Sunday. Because of this, if Lyn works on the Sunday, she will receive her normal pay for working a Sunday and will not get an alternative holiday. She still gets Monday off on full pay because her ANZAC Day is Mondayised. If she works on Monday, she will be paid time and a half for the hours worked and will get an alternative holiday.

Tony normally works on a Sunday so ANZAC Day is not Mondayised. He receives his eight hours’ pay at time and a half for working Sunday and also receives an alternative holiday. If Keith decided not to open on ANZAC Day, Tony would receive a day off on his usual pay. The restricted shop trading days have no effect on Mondayisation.

Isobel works for Fiona in Fiona’s Fashions shop from Monday to Friday. Hana also works for Fiona, but only on Saturday and Sunday. This year Christmas Day falls on a Saturday. Fiona’s Fashions can’t open on 25 December because of restricted shop trading. This always applies on the calendar date of the public holiday (in this case 25 December) and is never Mondayised. Fiona can open the shop on Monday 27 December.

Isobel doesn’t work on a Saturday, therefore the Christmas Day holiday is Mondayised for her. This means that Isobel has Monday (27 December) as her Christmas Day public holiday and she will have a paid day off work on Monday. If Isobel works on the Monday, she will be paid time and a half, and will be entitled to an alternative holiday because Christmas Day is Mondayised for her.

Hana usually works on a Saturday so the Christmas Day holiday isn’t Mondayised for her. Fiona can’t open the shop on the Saturday (25 December) because restricted shop trading applies. So Hana will have the day off on Christmas Day on full pay. If Hana agrees to do a shift on Monday to help Fiona out, she would only be paid her usual rate of pay. She wouldn’t get an alternative day because her Christmas Day holiday was on the Saturday.