In 2019, the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) mandated Active Choice Forms through S62A of the Employment Relations Act 2000.
This legislation requires all employers with a collective agreement to provide new employees with an active choice form within the first 10 days of starting their job to provide an opportunity to express interest in joining a union.
Read the MBIE active choice guidance for employers with details about the process, compliance, and fines for non-compliance here. Maximum fines for non-compliance are significant, at $10,000 for an individual or $20,000 for the company/organisation.
Click here to download the MBIE active choice form.
E tū has a specific email address to which we require forms be sent for processing: mbieform@etu.nz. If you wish, you can cc an E tū organiser into your active choice form emails but please ensure to always send directly to mbieform@etu.nz
The active choice form encourages employers to complete the section identifying the union, the employer name, and the worksite. This information is crucial for new employees to be fully informed, and for E tū to assign the employee to a worksite. Your assistance is sought to enable accurate data to be collected.
When employee contact details are clear and they indicate they want to join the union, we will send them a link to our application form: E tū Payroll Deduction Authority for Membership and Authority to Represent.
Where employee contact details are not clear, we seek to honour their choice to join the union, by requesting contact information from you as their employer. Frequently, employees assume that by signing the active choice form, they are automatically members of E tū, and deductions will ensue. This is not the case. We propose that you provide both the membership application form and the active choice form to the employee, to address this confusion. We also ask that you send both the active choice form and payroll deduction authorisation form to mbieform@etu.nz.
It is important that you continue to send through active choice forms, even if the employee joins immediately, so we can keep records of employers offering this choice.
Combinations of active choice responses and actions to take are below:
For Employers with exclusive collective agreements with E tū:
| Employee selects yes to joining a union | Send to E tū – mbieform@etu.nz |
| Employee selects no to joining a union | Send to E tū – mbieform@etu.nz |
| Employee selects no to joining a union and specifies they do not want this information shared | Keep form for internal records, do not send any details about this to unions |
| Employee does not return the form within 30 days | Send name of new employee E tū mbieform@etu.nz as proof you tried to facilitate the employee to make an active choice |
For Employers with a collective agreement with multiple unions:
| Employee selects yes to joining a union and does not specify which union | Send to all relevant unions E tū = mbieform@etu.nz |
| Employee selects yes to joining a union, specifies which union | Send to all relevant unions E tū = mbieform@etu.nz |
| Employee selects yes to joining a union, specifies which union, selects that they only want their information shared with their chosen union | Send only to union specified by employee If E tū = mbieform@etu.nz |
| Employee selects no to joining a union | Send to all relevant unions E tū = mbieform@etu.nz |
| Employee selects no to joining a union and specifies they do not want this information shared | Keep form for internal records, do not send any details about this to unions |
If you have any questions regarding this, please don’t hesitate to contact mbieform@etu.nz We are more than happy to have a call with your team to clarify this further.
Active Choice Form-related correspondence
Please send all Active Choice Form related correspondence to mbieform@etu.nz for processing. If you wish, you can cc an E tū organiser into your active choice form emails but please ensure to always directly include mbieform@etu.nz