ACT attempts to fix broken remuneration disclosure bill

“Last night ACT proposed a series of common-sense amendments to Labour MP Camilla Belich’s broken Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill, to make it more workable for businesses and employees entering into voluntary agreements with one another,” says ACT’s Small Business spokesperson Laura McClure.

“The Bill, without clear rationale, inserts the Government into every employment agreement in the country – telling workers and employers that they are unable to freely come to mutually beneficial agreements that work for them.

“This raises serious privacy concerns, diminishes workplace flexibility, and poses a real risk to harmony in the workplace by encouraging resentment and comparison between colleagues. It also threatens commercially sensitive information and creates legal uncertainty for employers trying to do the right thing.

“ACT did not support the Bill, which undermines the freedom of consenting adults to form contracts, but my colleague Dr Parmjeet Parmar and I proposed practical amendments to minimise the harm it would cause.”

The changes ACT proposed included:

• Restricting disclosure rights to within the same workplace – so employees could only disclose their own remuneration to colleagues who work for the same organisation, not to competitors, journalists, or the wider public.

• Protecting employee privacy – by prohibiting an employee from disclosing another employee’s pay without that person’s express consent.

• Preventing bad-faith disclosures – by ensuring only disclosures made in good faith are protected, so that attempts to weaponise pay information to harm employers or other staff aren’t shielded by law.

• Excluding performance-based pay – such as bonuses and commissions from the definition of “remuneration”, recognising that these are often highly individualised, sensitive, and commercially confidential.

• Delaying the Bill’s commencement by 12 months – to give businesses and industry bodies time to understand the law, adapt policies, and educate their members.

“These amendments would have preserved a worker’s ability to disclose their own pay while protecting the privacy of others and the ability of businesses to operate fairly and competitively. Labour, National and the Greens refused to support any of them," says McClure.

“ACT believes in freedom of contract, the right to privacy, and the value of trusting people to make their own arrangements. This Bill tramples on all three. New Zealanders deserve better than another law that treats adults like children and businesses like villains.”