Changes aim to ensure safety while staff exercise rights: defence minister
The Defence (Workforce) Amendment Bill will allow the defence minister to authorise – subject to the New Zealand Defence Force’s (NZDF) operational and legal advice – the chief of defence force’s (CDF) redeployment of uniformed personnel to perform NZDF civilian staff roles.
In its news release, the government said the newly introduced legislation will broaden the authorisation to cover situations risking national security and readiness to deliver core defence functions.
The government added that the authorisation could cover furnishing security at military bases, weapons and munitions services, and aircraft maintenance.
According to legislative information on Parliament’s website, the new bill seeks to help the CDF better manage the workforce to maintain national security when NZDF civilian staff members take industrial action.
The bill also aims to ensure that the processes for authorising the Armed Forces to conduct the work of public service employees taking industrial action would stay fit for purpose.
Judith Collins, defence minister, noted that NZDF civilian staff and public service employees could still take industrial action.
“But these changes ensure the security of New Zealand, and the safety of New Zealanders, endures while civilian staff exercise their rights,” Collins said in the news release. “At a time of increasing security challenges, these commonsense changes need to be made.”
According to the government, the Defence Act 1990 presently permits the defence minister to authorise the redeployment of uniformed personnel in situations compromising health and safety if the Armed Forces are not performing the work.
Regarding industrial action by NZDF civil staff, the new bill adds a process for the defence minister to give the Armed Forces a written authorisation to perform the work of NZDF civil staff taking industrial action when there are reasonable grounds to believe that the authorisation will:
As for industrial action by public service employees, the amendment bill will:
“The authorisation of military personnel to cover civilian tasks when industrial action occurs within the NZDF is not taken lightly,” Collins said. “But when required, it should be practical in its application.”
Collins added that the proposed amendments address the need for practicality.
The government’s news release gave more context for the contemplated changes.
In December 2024, civilian staff took industrial action. The defence minister had to request a Parliamentary resolution to ensure that uniformed personnel could continue conducting the work of striking civilian staff members for a period exceeding 14 days.
In its news release, the government explained that these events showed the vulnerability of such decisions to Parliamentary availability and the risk of publicly disclosing sensitive information.
The government noted that interested individuals and groups could offer their submissions regarding the recently introduced legislation upon its select committee referral this month.
