Employment Records NZ: What Every Employer Must Keep and For How Long
Quick Answer: Under the Employment Relations Act 2000, New Zealand employers are legally required to keep specific employee records for a minimum of six years. Records must be accurate, accessible, and available for inspection by a Labour Inspector on request. Failure to maintain them can result in penalties of up to $10,000 per breach.
Key Takeaways
- NZ employers must keep employment records for a minimum of 6 years under the Employment Relations Act 2000.
- Required records cover time worked, wages paid, leave taken, and written employment agreements.
- A Labour Inspector can request access to records at any time — paper and spreadsheet systems create significant audit risk.
- CleverTime automatically generates and retains compliant time and attendance records for every NZ business.
What Employment Records Does NZ Law Require?
The Employment Relations Act 2000 and the Holidays Act 2003 together specify the records New Zealand employers must maintain. These fall into four main categories:
1. Time Records
For employees paid on a time basis — hourly, daily, or weekly — employers must record the hours worked each day, including start and finish times where relevant. These records must be accurate enough to demonstrate that the employee was paid correctly for all hours worked, including any overtime.
For salaried employees, time records are still required if hours vary, or if any overtime or leave is taken.
2. Wage and Time Records
Employers must keep a record of the employee’s name and date of birth, their employment type (full-time, part-time, fixed-term, or casual), their rate of pay, the hours worked and wages paid for each pay period, and any deductions made from wages along with the reason for them.
3. Holiday and Leave Records
Under the Holidays Act 2003, employers must record each employee’s entitlement to annual leave, sick leave, bereavement leave, and public holiday pay. They must also record leave taken, leave balances, any leave purchased or cashed up, hours worked on public holidays, and whether alternative holiday entitlement was created.
4. Written Employment Agreements
Employers must retain a copy of each employee’s current written employment agreement and any variations to it. These must be available if requested by the employee or a Labour Inspector.
Get Started Today
Upgrade your workforce management with CleverTime’s Systems Solutions
How Long Must Records Be Kept?
All employment records must be retained for a minimum of six years from the date they were created — even after an employee has left the business. Records must be kept in a format that can be readily accessed and inspected at short notice.
Storing records in spreadsheets, paper files, or email threads creates significant retrieval risk. Finding a specific employee’s records from four years ago in an unstructured system is time-consuming and error-prone under inspection conditions.
What Happens If Records Are Not Maintained?
Labour Inspectors from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) have the right to enter workplaces and request employment records without prior notice. Where records are not maintained or cannot be produced:
- The employer may face a penalty of up to $10,000 per breach under the Employment Relations Act 2000.
- In wage-and-time disputes, the absence of records typically results in the employee’s account being preferred — the employer bears the burden of disproving it.
- Repeated non-compliance can result in prosecution under the Wages Protection Act 1983.
The Risk of Manual Record-Keeping
Many New Zealand businesses — particularly SMEs — still rely on paper timesheets, spreadsheets, or email-based approvals to manage employment records. These approaches introduce compounding risks: transcription errors where time entered manually differs from what was actually worked; version control problems when corrections delete earlier records; accessibility failures when documents cannot be found during an inspection; and Holidays Act leave calculation errors that create separate liability.
How CleverTime Automates Compliance
CleverTime records every clock-in, clock-out, break, and leave event in real time, stored securely in the cloud for the required six-year period. Records are timestamped, auditable, and exportable in formats suitable for Labour Inspector review. Integration with Xero ensures time records flow directly into payroll without manual re-entry.
To see how CleverTime can automate employment record compliance for your NZ business, book a demo today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to keep records for casual employees in NZ?
Yes. The Employment Relations Act 2000 applies to all employees including casual workers. You must record hours worked each day, the rate of pay, and any leave taken. The six-year retention requirement applies regardless of employment type or whether the employee has since left.
Can I keep employment records digitally in NZ?
Yes. The Employment Relations Act does not require paper records. Digital records are accepted provided they can be readily produced for inspection, are accurate, and have a tamper-evident audit trail. A cloud-based time and attendance system like CleverTime satisfies these requirements.
What is the penalty for not keeping employee records in NZ?
Failure to keep required records or provide them to a Labour Inspector can result in a penalty of up to $10,000 per breach under the Employment Relations Act 2000. In wage disputes, the Authority will generally prefer the employee’s evidence over the employer’s where records are absent.
Does CleverTime integrate with Xero for NZ payroll?
Yes. CleverTime integrates directly with Xero. Employee time data flows automatically into Xero, eliminating manual re-entry each pay cycle and reducing the risk of discrepancies between time records and payroll.