Proposed Employment Relations Act Changes in 2013

The Government has announced further reforms to the Employment Relations Act (the "Act") which it proposes to include in legislation, which would come into effect in the second half of 2013.

Those reforms include:

• Amending the duty of good faith in section 4 of the Act to align it more closely with the privacy principles in the Privacy Act. This would mean that employers would not be required to provide an employee with access to confidential personal information about another person, or evaluative material about the employee concerned, where an employer is proposing to make a decision that will, or is likely to, affect an employee's continued employment.
• Changes relating to collective bargaining, including not requiring the parties to conclude a collective agreement. Employers will still be required to bargain in good faith with the intention of reaching an agreement, but it will be easier to cease fruitless bargaining where it is clear that agreement will