The Employment Status of Work-Integrated Learning Students in New Zealand

This article examines the employment status of tertiary students participating in work‑integrated learning (WIL) courses in New Zealand. WIL is an educational approach that integrates theory with student exposure to real work, professional or practice settings. As the setting generally involves WIL students undertaking work for host organisations, an important labour law issue is whether the WIL student is an employee. This issue was addressed in Association of Professionals and Executive Employees Incorporated v Secretary for Education (Govender), the first reported case in New Zealand of a WIL student, who was not paid a salary by the organisation for which they worked, to be declared an employee of their host organisation. This article analyses and evaluates the employment test under the Employment Relations Act 2000 and associated case law, including the Govender decision. It argues that if the reasoning in Govender is adopted in future cases, this may discourage host organisations from participating in WIL, jeopardising the pedagogy. The addition of a WIL placement exception to the Employment Relations Act is proposed to clarify the employment status of WIL students. The proposed exception would additionally protect students from harm, encourage financial support for WIL students, and facilitate quality WIL experiences.