The Employment Relations Authority

Section 157 (1) of the Employment Relations Act describes the Employment Relations Authority as ‘an investigative body that has the role of resolving employment relationship problems by establishing the facts and making a determination according to the substantial merits of the case, without regard to the technicalities’.

The government’s intention when setting up the Authority was to deal with employment relationship problems in a non-adversarial way. It hoped that ‘the Authority will make practical decisions quickly, with a minimum of detail, focussing on key issues and how to resolve them’.

From this, four key points follow:

• The Authority is intended to operate informally.
• It is concerned with the substantial merits of the cases it is considering and not the technicalities.
• Its primary focus is on the resolution of employment relationship problems rather than the definition of those problems.
• It is intended to address problems quickly and pragmatically.

The last point is emphasised by section 175 of the Act, that requires the Authority to deliver ‘speedy, informal and practical justice’ to the parties.

The Authority conducts investigation meetings between the parties. These are normally open to the public. Before these meetings it can interview the parties or other relevant people, call for information it considers relevant, and summon anyone to act as a witness at the meeting. During the meeting, the Authority must give each side the opportunity to be heard properly and must not prejudge any of the issues that might arise. These are known as the principles of natural justice. Other than these broad constraints, the Authority is free to decide what process it will follow in each case.