A new bill addresses triangular employment

14 March 2025 1 min read

By Andy Breen

At a glance

The Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Amendment Bill) aims to regulate triangular employment relationships.
This involves an employee of a primary company working for a third party (controlling third party), who may be joined to legal claims.
The Amendment Bill ensures employees in triangular relationships can be covered by collective employment agreements.
Employees are eligible if their work falls under a collective agreement with the controlling third party, they are union members, and not bound by another collective agreement.
If passed, unions and employees may add controlling third parties to personal grievance claims.

In 2025, the Amendment Bill was introduced into the New Zealand Parliament which aims to further regulate triangular employment relationships. A triangular employment relationship is where an employee of a primary company completes work for a third party (the controlling third party). Although an employee may only have a written individual employment agreement with the primary company, the controlling third party may be 'joined' to legal claims that an employee advances.

The purpose of this Amendment Bill is to ensure that employees who undertake work in a triangular employment relationship are eligible to be covered by a collective employment agreement (a formal employment agreement ratified by union members). The Amendment Bill proposes to add to the definition of 'eligible employee'. It would include employees who carry out work for a controlling third party if:

their work is within the coverage clause of any collective agreement to which the controlling third party is a party; and
they are members of the union with which that controlling third party has a collective agreement; and
they are not bound by another collective agreement to which their employer is a party.

Should the Amendment Bill be passed in its current form, employers will likely see unions and employees adding controlling third parties to personal grievance claims.