Employment agreements

This page contains information about employment agreements and employing staff in state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand.

• Boards
• Principals and Tumuaki
• Teachers and Kaiako
• Non-teaching and Support Staff

Further reading on this subject is required as it regards mandatory action.

Schools must adhere to the terms of a staff member’s collective, individual or fixed term employment agreement. Schools must also ensure that they police vet their staff.

• Collective agreements
• Individual employment agreements
• Employment issue resolution
• Fixed term agreements
• Special terms or conditions
• Police vetting

Collective agreements

View a list of all the current collective agreements for staff at state and state-integrated schools and kindergartens. Also, check the dates when bargaining can start and when your collective agreement expires.

Download and read previous expired collective agreements.

Individual employment agreements

View all the current individual employment agreements for staff at state and state-integrated schools and kindergartens.

Employment relationship problem resolution

An employment problem could be a personal grievance, a dispute about the meaning or application of any part of an individual employment agreement.

There’s a set process to follow to resolve employment problems, including help and mediation through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Fixed-term agreements

You and your employer may agree that your employment agreement will end on a specific date, when a specific event occurs, or at the end of a specific project as long as all 3 of the following conditions are met.

1. There are genuine reasons based on reasonable grounds for doing so.
2. Your employer has told you when or how the employment will end and the reasons why.
3. Your employment agreement states in writing the way the employment agreement will end and the reasons for ending the employment in that way.

If your employer doesn’t meet all 3 of these requirements, the employment relationship can be considered permanent.

Your employer can't use a fixed-term agreement to set a time period to assess whether you’re suitable for permanent employment.

If they want to continue to employ you at the end of a fixed-term agreement they must sign a new employment agreement with you.

Special terms or conditions (concurrence)

Ministry of Education approval is required if schools want to offer different employment terms or conditions from those set out in the collective agreements or individual employment agreements, such as additional pay, allowances or benefits. This approval is called concurrence.

Police vetting

Police vetting is part of the safety checking process your school or kura Māori must do when employing or engaging staff.

Last reviewed: 23 August 2023 Has this been useful? Give us your feedback