PSA seeks Commerce Commission investigation into ACC over misleading job ads about working from home
- Workers promised flexible work - only to have rug pulled from under them
The PSA has written to the Commerce Commission seeking an investigation into ACC for breaching the Fair Trading Act after it advertised jobs promising staff could work from home up to three days a week, only to propose cutting this to two days.
The PSA has filed the complaint with the Commerce Commission after ACC told staff in October that they would be required in the office three days a week from December 1, up from two days.
This contradicted job advertisements that explicitly promoted working from home up to three days a week as a key benefit of working at ACC (see examples attached). The advertisements ran from June 2023 until at least July 2025.
"ACC deliberately advertised flexible work arrangements to attract staff, and is now looking to break that promise - this is exactly the kind of misleading conduct the Fair Trading Act is designed to prevent," said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
"Workers made major life decisions - resigning from jobs, relocating, arranging childcare - based on ACC's advertised working conditions. Many feel deceived and betrayed with the proposed change to its remote working policy."
After the PSA lodged legal action with the Employment Relations Authority, ACC backed down and agreed to pause the changes and consult with staff, with implementation delayed until early next year.
"While we welcome ACC's decision to finally consult staff, the consultation proposal is the same and doesn't change the fact that they misled job applicants about working conditions in the first place," Fitzsimons said.
"The Commerce Commission needs to investigate whether ACC breached the Fair Trading Act, which applies to employment advertising. Job seekers deserve accurate information about working conditions, which employers are obliged to honour."
The PSA represents around 1,200 ACC workers who joined the mega strike in October amid rock-bottom morale following a damning culture review. The PSA also remains in facilitated bargaining with ACC through the Employment Relations Authority in relation to a new collective agreement for its members.
"We hope the decision to consult workers over the remote working policy marks a turning point - but the Commerce Commission still needs to determine whether laws were broken when ACC advertised working conditions they failed to honour," said Fitzsimons.