29 May 2025
Ref: OIA-25-022
A Barker
By Email
: [FYI request #30949 email]
Tēnā koe A Barker
Official Information Act 1982 request for employment agreement information.
Thank you for your fol ow up email of 22 May 2025, regarding employment agreement information.
Our People and Ministerial services teams have been working on your fol ow up request to determine if there is
any further information that can be provided.
This has included searching historical records, that predate Cal aghan Innovation where available.
Please note the fol owing:
1. As you may be aware Cal aghan Innovation was established on 1 February 2013. As a result, expertise from
Industrial Research Limited (IRL) a former Crown Research Institute was merged into Cal aghan
Innovation.
2. On further research of the merger between IRL and Cal aghan Innovation, there are some instances, where
former IRL staff received an offer of employment with Cal aghan Innovation, but retained the employment
agreement terms and conditions of their IRL employment agreement
3. The restraint of trade or non-compete clauses in these IRL agreements has not been enforced at any point
since the inception of Cal aghan innovation in 2013.
Considering this historical information, Cal aghan Innovation can advise the fol owing in relation to your
questions:
i.
In relation to the number of current employees are bound by a restraint of trade or non-compete
clauses, our decision to decline providing employee information stil stands, however the section
of the Act applicable has changed.
Your request for the number of impacted employees is being withheld in ful , in accordance with
Section 9(2)(a) of the Act. This is due to the number of impacted employees being low and
releasing these figures would make these individuals identifiable and therefore breaching their
privacy.
ii.
An excerpt from a historical IRL agreement dated 2010 which predates Callaghan Innovation has
been located and notes the fol owing conditions:
Rukuhia te wāhi ngaro, hei maunga tātai whetū
Explore the unknown, pursue excellence
callaghaninnovation.govt.nz
• client of IRL with whom you have been involved in the twelve (12)months prior to the
termination of your employment. You shal also not for six (6) months after the
termination of your employment endeavour to entice any of IRL's clients or staff away
from IRL.
• You confirm that these restrictions are reasonable in al the circumstances. However, if a
Court finds any of them to be unenforceable, both parties agree to accept any
modification of the restraint periods required to make the restriction enforceable.
iii.
As noted in point four, the restraint of trade or non-compete clauses in these agreements has not
been enforced at any point since the inception of Cal aghan innovation on 1 February 2013.
Therefore no costs would have been incurred in relation to the enforcement.
I trust this information is of assistance.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Information about
how to make a complaint is available a
t www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Katie McNal y
Chief People Officer
Callaghan Innovation
Rukuhia te wāhi ngaro, hei maunga tātai whetū
Explore the unknown, pursue excellence
callaghaninnovation.govt.nz
