TheEmployment Court of New Zealand (Māori: Te Kooti Take-a-mihi o Aotearoa) is a specialist court for employment disputes. It mainly deals with issues arising under theEmployment Relations Act 2000. The Employment Court is acourt of record and has equal standing to the High Court of New Zealand.

TheCourt of Arbitration was a specialistemployment court inNew Zealand that dealt withindustrial relations disputes from 1894 to 1973.

TheIndustrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894 created a compulsoryarbitration system for resolving industrial disputes. Part of this involved the creation of the Court of Arbitration. The court heardindustrial disputes, made and interpretedawards, and set minimum standards of employment. The court also had the power to set and adjustwages.^[1] The court comprised aSupreme CourtJudge, aunion representative, and an employers' representative.

These elements continued through a number of successive acts until repeal in 1973.

The Employment Contracts Act 1991 established the Employment Court to deal with employment disputes.^[2]: 233

The following is a list of the chief judges of the Employment Court since it was established in 1991.

	Name	Portrait	Term of office	Sources
1	Thomas Goddard		15 May 1991 – 19 May 2005	[3]
2	Graeme Colgan		20 May 2005 – 9 July 2017	[3]
3	Christina Inglis		10 July 2017 – present	[4]

• Manu v Steelink Contracting Services Ltd (1998) WEC2/98
• Grey Advertising (New Zealand) Ltd v Marinkovich (1999) AEC 70A/99

• New Zealand court system
• New Zealand labour law
• Arbitration courts and tribunals
• 1894 establishments in New Zealand
• 1973 disestablishments
• Courts and tribunals established in 1894
• Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1973
• 1991 establishments in New Zealand
• Courts and tribunals established in 1991

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