Work Experience Placements: Legal Obligations For NZ Employers

Work experience placements can be a win-win. You get an extra set of hands (and a fresh perspective), and the placement participant gets a chance to learn what the job is really like.

But from a legal point of view, work experience placements can get tricky fast - especially when the placement starts looking and feeling like “work” in the usual sense.

If you’re a New Zealand business thinking about taking on a student, school leaver, or career-changer for a placement, it’s worth getting your legal foundations right from day one. That way, you can support the person properly, manage risk, and avoid accidentally creating an employment relationship (with minimum wage, leave, and other obligations attached).

What Are Work Experience Placements (And Why Do Businesses Use Them)?

In simple terms, work experience placements are short-term arrangements where someone spends time in your workplace to observe, learn, and build practical skills.

Common examples include:

• School placements (often organised through the school or as part of a careers programme)
• Tertiary placements (e.g. a course requirement for a diploma/degree programme)
• Industry experience as part of a professional qualification
• Informal work experience (where someone approaches you directly to “get a foot in the door”)

From an employer perspective, work experience placements can help you:

• build a pipeline for future hiring
• test whether a role or department needs extra resourcing
• give back to your industry or community
• support training providers and develop talent

The key is making sure the arrangement is structured as genuine learning and exposure - not unpaid labour.

When Does A Work Experience Placement Become Employment?

This is the most important legal question to get right.

In NZ, calling something “work experience” (or even “internship”) doesn’t automatically mean it’s unpaid or outside employment law. If the reality of the arrangement looks like an employment relationship, you may need to treat the person as an employee - including paying at least the minimum wage and meeting other obligations.

Substance Over Labels: What Matters In Practice

New Zealand employment law looks at the real nature of the relationship, not just what you’ve named it in an email or a handshake conversation. In practice, courts and the Employment Relations Authority can consider a range of factors (often described as “tests” like control, integration, and the parties’ intentions), and will weigh up the overall picture - not any single checklist item. One commonly cited example is Bryson v Three Foot Six Ltd, which reinforces that the label the parties use isn’t decisive if the working reality points the other way.

Factors that can point towards an employment relationship include:

• Productive work: the person is doing work that directly benefits your business (not just observing or shadowing)
• Set hours and rostered shifts: they’re expected to turn up like staff members and cover operational needs
• Supervision and control: you direct how, when, and where work must be done (as opposed to the participant mainly learning)
• Replacing paid staff: they’re filling gaps you’d otherwise pay someone to fill
• Performance expectations: you treat them like a worker with KPIs, deadlines, or disciplinary consequences

On the other hand, a placement is more likely to be genuine work experience if:

• it’s short-term and structured around learning outcomes
• the participant mainly observes, shadows, and is supervised closely
• any tasks are minor, low-risk, and clearly educational
• you’re not relying on the person to keep the business running

What About “Unpaid Internships”?

“Unpaid internship” is a common term online, but it can be misleading in NZ.

If an intern is effectively working as part of your team, you’ll want to assume there’s a real risk they should be treated as an employee and paid accordingly.

If your goal is to trial someone before offering them a job, it’s usually safer to use a proper employment arrangement (with pay and appropriate terms) rather than trying to fit the arrangement into “work experience”. For many businesses, the cleaner approach is to use an Employment Contract and set clear expectations from the start.

How Do You Set Up Work Experience Placements Properly?

A well-run placement is usually the result of planning - not just goodwill.

Here’s a practical structure you can use to set work experience placements up in a way that’s clearer and safer for your business.

1. Be Clear On The Purpose (And Keep It Educational)

Before the placement starts, get clear internally on:

• what the participant is meant to learn
• what they will actually do day-to-day
• who will supervise them
• how long the placement will run
• whether any payment, allowance, or reimbursement applies

If the “tasks” are really just normal staff duties, that’s a red flag - and it may be time to consider a paid role instead.

2. Use A Written Agreement (Even For Short Placements)

Even if the placement is only a few days, a written document helps everyone stay on the same page.

For many NZ businesses, a tailored Work Experience Agreement is the best way to set expectations around supervision, safety, confidentiality, and what the placement is (and isn’t).

A good agreement can cover:

• Start and end dates (and daily hours)
• Learning focus and permitted activities
• Supervision arrangements
• No employment relationship statement (where appropriate, and consistent with reality)
• Health and safety obligations and site rules
• Confidentiality and IP basics
• Privacy and handling of personal information
• Termination (e.g. if safety or conduct becomes an issue)

If the person is truly volunteering (for example, supporting a community event your business is running), you might also consider whether a Volunteer Agreement is more appropriate - but be careful not to use a “volunteer” label to avoid minimum wage where the person is effectively working like staff.

3. Sort Out Confidentiality Early

Placements often mean someone new is seeing your operations up close - customer information, pricing, supplier terms, internal systems, and “how you do things”.

If you need to protect sensitive information, put confidentiality obligations in writing. Depending on the situation, you might use a clause in the placement agreement or a standalone Non-Disclosure Agreement.

This is especially important if the participant will:

• access client/customer files
• sit in on meetings
• view financials, proposals, or strategy documents
• help with marketing content before it’s public

4. Don’t Forget Induction And Training

A common mistake is treating a placement participant like they’ll “pick it up as they go”. From a risk perspective, that’s where injuries, privacy breaches, and misunderstandings happen.

A simple placement induction can include:

• site rules and emergency procedures
• who they report to each day
• what they’re allowed and not allowed to do
• how to handle customer interactions (if any)
• device, password, and system access rules

What Laws Do You Need To Think About For Work Experience Placements?

Even when someone isn’t your employee, your business can still have legal responsibilities. The exact obligations depend on the arrangement, the workplace, and what the participant will be doing.

These are the key NZ legal areas most small businesses need to consider.

Health And Safety (Health And Safety At Work Act 2015)

If someone is in your workplace, health and safety is usually your first priority - and it’s not optional.

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, as a business (a PCBU), you must take reasonably practicable steps to ensure health and safety in your work environment. Importantly, health and safety duties can apply even where there isn’t an employment relationship - and in many cases, a work experience participant may still be treated as a “worker” for HSWA purposes (for example, if they are carrying out work in any capacity for your business).

Practical steps include:

• checking whether the placement tasks expose the person to hazards (machinery, heat, chemicals, driving, heavy lifting, public interaction)
• ensuring training and supervision are appropriate for their experience level
• providing required PPE
• restricting high-risk work unless properly trained/qualified
• having a clear incident reporting process

Work experience placements often involve young people, which can increase the need for strong supervision and conservative task design.

Minimum Wage And Employment Entitlements

If the placement is actually an employment relationship in substance, then laws like the Minimum Wage Act 1983 and employment entitlements (including leave under the Holidays Act 2003) can be triggered.

This is why it’s so important not to run work experience placements as if they’re unpaid staff shifts.

If you’re unsure whether your planned placement crosses the line into employment, it’s worth getting advice early. Fixing things after the fact can be stressful and expensive.

Privacy (Privacy Act 2020)

Work experience participants may come into contact with personal information - especially in customer-facing businesses or any business handling client records, bookings, or health/financial information.

Under the Privacy Act 2020, you should only collect, use, store, and disclose personal information in appropriate ways, and you should keep it secure.

Practical privacy steps for placements can include:

• only giving system access if it’s genuinely needed
• using role-based access (not shared logins)
• training the participant on confidentiality and privacy expectations
• having clear rules about taking photos, screenshots, or customer details

If your business collects personal information from customers online (or even through simple booking forms), it’s also worth having a clear Privacy Policy and internal processes to match what you say you do.

Discrimination And Fair Treatment (Human Rights Act 1993)

Even if the person isn’t an employee, you should still treat placement participants fairly and professionally.

The Human Rights Act 1993 prohibits discrimination in a range of contexts. From a business point of view, this means you should be careful about:

• how you select placement participants
• how they’re treated day-to-day (including behaviour from staff)
• what tasks they’re assigned
• how complaints are handled

A simple “placement buddy” or supervisor check-in can go a long way to keeping the experience safe and positive for everyone.

Common Risk Areas (And How To Avoid Them)

Most issues with work experience placements aren’t caused by bad intentions - they usually happen because things evolve organically and nobody stops to reassess.

Here are some common risk areas we see for NZ businesses, plus practical ways to manage them.

The Placement Quietly Turns Into A Staff Shortage Fix

It’s tempting to roster the placement participant on when you’re busy, especially in hospitality, retail, trades admin, or customer service roles.

But if your business starts relying on them for operational coverage, you can unintentionally drift into employment territory.

Tip: Set boundaries in writing about what the participant can do, keep supervision active, and make sure you still roster enough paid staff to run the business.

Unclear IP Ownership (Especially For Marketing Or Creative Work)

If the participant creates content for your business - like social media posts, photos, designs, or written material - it’s worth thinking about who owns that work.

Tip: Address IP in your placement paperwork, especially where the business intends to use the work commercially.

Access To Customer Data Without Safeguards

Many small businesses share logins “just for the week” or let a placement participant use a staff member’s account. That can create privacy and security risk.

Tip: Limit access, avoid shared credentials, and set clear rules about what information can be accessed and how it must be handled.

No Clear Way To End The Placement Early

Sometimes a placement just isn’t working - the person might not be suited to the environment, safety concerns may come up, or your business needs might change.

Tip: Your work experience paperwork should include a practical early termination process (for example, immediate termination for serious misconduct or safety risk, and a simple notice process for other situations).

Confusion About Who Is Responsible (Business Vs School/Provider)

If the placement is organised through a school, polytechnic, or training provider, you might assume they’re handling all the paperwork and risk.

In reality, your business can still have key duties (especially around health and safety), and you may still want your own written terms in place.

Tip: Clarify roles upfront: who supervises, who insures what (if relevant), who handles incidents, and who the point of contact is if issues arise.

Key Takeaways

• Work experience placements should be structured around learning and exposure - if the person is doing productive work like a staff member, there’s a risk the arrangement is actually employment.
• In NZ, what matters is the real nature of the relationship (and how it operates day-to-day), not what you call it, so it’s important to avoid running placements like unpaid shifts.
• A written Work Experience Agreement helps you set expectations on supervision, permitted tasks, confidentiality, privacy, safety, and how the placement can end.
• Health and safety obligations can apply even where there’s no employment relationship, and work experience participants may still be treated as “workers” under HSWA - so induction, supervision, and hazard management are essential.
• Privacy is a common pressure point for work experience placements, particularly where participants can access customer data, so practical safeguards (and a clear Privacy Policy) help reduce risk.
• If your placement is really a trial for a role, it’s often safer to use a proper Employment Contract rather than trying to squeeze the arrangement into “work experience”.

Note: This article is general information only and isn’t legal advice. If you’d like advice on your specific situation, it’s best to get tailored guidance.

If you’d like help setting up work experience placements the right way (including drafting the right agreement for your business), you can reach us at 0800 002 184 or team@sprintlaw.co.nz for a free, no-obligations chat.