Labour Minister comments on Employment Court

The role of the Employment Court and its relationship with the Employment Contracts Act is still under review as set out in the Coalition Agreement, Labour Minister Max Bradford says.

Mr Bradford was commenting on a speech to the Wellington Law Society by Finance Minister Bill Birch, which raised the issue of whether a specialist court was needed for labour market disputes.

"There are many strongly held views on this question on both sides of the argument," Mr Bradford said.

"The Coalition Agreement provides for a process which I have under way at present, to assess how consistent or otherwise Employment Court decisions have been with the Employment Contracts Act. Only from this careful analysis, with independent assessment, can we judge whether the present court is judicially active or not.

"Only when that process is complete and an appropriate consultation exercise has been carried out will the Coalition Government be able to make a judgement about the future of the Court.

Mr Bradford made his comments as he was departing for the ILO conference in Geneva.