|
|
|
Book Review
| Earling Rasmussen (ed.), Employment Relationships: New Zealand's Employment Relations Act, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 2004. pp. 210. NZ $49.99 paper.
|
| Following the election of a Labour Government in New Zealand in 1999 it was clear that the controversial Employment Contracts Act 1991 (ECA) would be repealed. The replacement Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA) was intended to move labour law back to a more balanced model that, as the objects of the Act stated, would 'build productive employment relationships through the promotion of good faith' including by promoting collective bargaining. This book consists of 13 contributions by a range of authors reflecting a variety of different viewpoints towards the new Act. Although published in 2004 the contributions in the book were written prior to the enactment of the ER Amendment Act 2004, although some made reference to the Bill then before Parliament. The amendments have significantly strengthened the good faith provisions in the ERA and introduced a number of other provisions designed to limit some forms of anti-union behaviour and to strengthen collective bargaining. |
1
|
|
The contributors include Margaret Wilson, the Minister of Labour who introduced the Act and oversaw its implementation. Other contributors include a selection of trade unionists, business representatives, practitioners and academics. In any book of this nature which features a range of contributions the quality of the contributions is variable and in a review of this length it is impossible to do justice to all those contributions and this review can only seek to give an impression of the overall usefulness of the book. |
2
|
|
Margaret Wilson's contribution, a former academic before she became Minister, is particularly valuable for providing an insight into the political thinking behind the Act. In a section on its policy objectives Wilson stresses that the majority of the policy development work was done within government and concentrated on how to create a regulatory framework that produced greater productivity, provided a fairer process to determine wages and conditions and which dealt with issues of worker skills within the labour market. Wilson makes the clear point that the ERA was intended to rebuild employment relationships and to create a more cooperative atmosphere conducive to improving labour market outcomes. The Government saw that to achieve this it was necessary to reinforce the human as well as the economic nature of the employment relationship. It required the provision of a set of principles and the creation of a framework within which that could be achieved. The statutory obligation of good faith was central to achieving these objectives. A secondary objective, and one that seems to have been a high priority of the Minister, was to provide a dispute resolution mechanism to reform the system which had become increasingly legalistic and expensive under the ECA. As Wilson notes one major change since the 1990 was that the legal profession had become a major force in the labour law. |
3
|
|
Contributions from unions and business are provided by Ross Wilson of the Council of Trade Unions and to Barbara Burton of Business New Zealand, formed in 2001 when the Employers and Manufacturers merged. (Strictly speaking, the Employers Federation led the opposition to the ER Bill.) As might be expected Wilson's contribution is strongly supportive of the Act while Burton's sees it as the beginning of a return to a more inflexible regime, increased government intervention and increased compliance costs for employers. Burton's contribution is disappointing as it consists largely of standard employer rhetoric in favour of increased 'flexibility' and a restatement of employer myths such as allowing collective bargaining to take place only with unions is contrary to freedom of association — the so-called 'union monopoly' on collective bargaining. What employers seek, although they are careful not to say so, is the freedom they enjoyed under the ECA to lock out small and unorganised groups of workers in order to force a reduction of terms and conditions through a so-called 'collective' contract of employment — a contract with two or more employee parties. |
4
|
|
Ross Wilson's more substantial contribution looks at serious structural issues within the New Zealand labour market that developed during the 1990s including low productivity growth and low levels of wages and draws attention to New Zealand's very low levels of productivity and wage growth compared to those of Australia. Given the open labour market between Australia and New Zealand the fact that New Zealand's wages are 25 per cent lower in real terms is clearly of considerable concern. Wilson argues that the ERA, including the proposed amendments in the then proposed Bill, are needed if New Zealand is to move towards a high skill, higher wage economy. Wilson's contribution is also important for pointing out the slow re-emergence of tripartite and industry union-employer consultative initiatives that has begun under the Act. Such structures largely disappeared during the 1990s. Margaret Wilson also made the point that the lack of such structures made policy development difficult. |
5
|
|
The other contributions tended to be more specific although nonetheless interesting. For example Rasmussen and Ross provide an interesting contribution on the ERA through the eyes of the media. Given the importance of the media in forming public perceptions such an analysis is of considerable interest. As might be expected they find that the media tend to focus on dramatic events and personalities particularly high public profile collective bargaining disputes. In New Zealand this tends to mean a focus on public sector disputes given the relatively low level of contentious private sector collective bargaining. The analysis suggests however that underlying this is considerable strong interest in such issues as compliance costs for small businesses, work-family balance, skill shortages in the labour market and the like. |
6
|
|
While it is not possible to discuss all contributions in detail in combination they provide a useful overview of the impact of the ERA after its first three years of operation. Thicket et. al. provide an analysis of collective bargaining outcomes under the Act noting that, while there are some visible improvements, the Act has not brought about the changes many expected. John Hughes contributes a discussion of good faith and bargaining under the Act. Given the central importance of good faith to the overall scheme this contribution is particularly valuable and makes the point that, subject to what the 2004 amendments may achieve, the new regime has not necessarily improved the position for those employees 'whose employers had utilised the contractual freedom under the ECA to the hilt.' McAndrew et. al. contribute a preliminary analysis of the restructured employment institutions concluding that while the new processes have worked well they have not yet brought about any fundamental change in employment relations practices or dispute resolution. |
7
|
|
Overall this collection provides a useful series of perspectives on the ERA after its first few years of operation. Perhaps the primary impression that one receives after reading the contributions is that while the ERA is an important step in restoring a balanced system of labour law and industrial relations it has not fully lived up to the expectations of its promoters. Ross Wilson described the ERA as 'a modest law designed to promote collective bargaining and good faith relations in the labour market'. Given that the ECA provided a decade of labour market deregulation and deunionisation, and resulted on the one hand in the development of strong anti-union attitudes amongst some employers and on the other a significantly reduced profile of unionism amongst employees it might be too much to expect that a modest reform was likely to achieve, particularly in the short term, a significant change in labour market practices. Nevertheless, as this book makes clear, changes are occurring, albeit slowly, and the 2004 amendments will hopefully be effective in further achieving the objects of the Act. |
8
|
| | | | |
| Victoria University of Wellington |
GORDON ANDERSON | |
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|