MBIE's Employment Mediation Services has advised that from Monday, 23 March 2020 the default mode of service delivery for mediation services will be via telephone mediation.

All circuit travel and face to face service delivery will be suspended until further notice.

Dispute Resolution Manager (Central/Southern) Debbie de Jong says the move is to keep people and parties safe and play their part in curtailing the transmission of the COVID-19 virus in New Zealand.

"Our case management team will start notifying parties currently scheduled for mediation of these changes from today, 20 March," she says.

"We recognise that this is a significant change to the way that we deliver our services but believe this is the right response for the reasons stated above for the foreseeable future.

"We remain deeply committed as a mediation service to offering high quality employment dispute resolution services to New Zealand workers and workplaces."