Cultural values in the workplace used to sit in the "nice to have" column. Mentioned in an induction pack, referenced in a values statement, otherwise left alone. That's no longer a safe assumption. Once tikanga shows up in how your business describes itself, whether that's a position description, a kaupapa statement, or simply how a team has always worked, courts are increasingly treating it as something you can be held to.
Once you say it, you own it
In a 2023 Employment Court case involving the New Zealand Customs Service, an employee was dismissed after refusing a Covid vaccination. Customs had built tikanga into its employment framework as an organisation. When the dismissal process didn't reflect that, the Court found it rushed and lacking real engagement with the employee's cultural concerns, and ruled the dismissal unjustified.
The lesson isn't that Customs did anything unusual by including tikanga in its workplace culture. It's what happened next. Having built it into the relationship, the employer was expected to live by it, not treat it as a value on a poster.
It's not only about Māori employees
A common assumption is that this only applies where the workforce is largely Māori. Case law says otherwise. In the Customs case, the employee wasn't Māori, but the tikanga values had been adopted for all staff, so they applied to all staff.
There's also an older line of cases involving Māori employees in Māori settings, where the employer was expected to make cultural accommodations without the employee needing to ask or justify their identity. In one from the early 2000s, a Māori health worker was found unjustifiably dismissed after her employer failed to accommodate a longstanding cultural obligation she needed leave for.
Why this matters
Fairness and reasonableness, the core test behind almost every dismissal in New Zealand, already has room for cultural considerations. A process that's fast and transactional, with no space for how a decision affects someone's mana, isn't automatically fair, even if the underlying reason was sound.
The repercussions when this gets missed tend to look like: personal grievances succeeding on process rather than substance, reinstatement or compensation orders, and a quieter cost, staff noticing that stated values don't survive a hard conversation.
In practice
- Be honest about what you've actually committed to in policies and values statements, and make sure it holds up under pressure, not just in easy moments
- Offer a hui or face to face conversation for significant decisions, rather than defaulting to email or video call
- Make space for whānau support where it matters to the person involved
- Ask early whether there's a cultural dimension to a situation, rather than waiting to be told
This article is general information based on current case law as at mid 2026 and isn't a substitute for advice on your specific situation. How tikanga applies will depend on your workplace, your policies, and the individuals involved. If you'd like support reviewing your policies or working through a specific situation, get in touch.