Erling Rasmussen - Employment Relations in Aotearoa New Zealand--An Introduction

Most of us are either employed in paid or unpaid work, or employ people ourselves and, therefore, have some understanding of what employment means. Employment relations are often described as the interaction between three major groups: employers, employees, and the government. But it is more than this; employment relations are dynamic and complex and what occurs in the workplace is influenced by the wider society. Governments change employment laws from time to time, and courts interpret these laws when they rule on cases. This creates precedents new understandings about the application of law, which essentially become new laws.

Rapid technological change has resulted in both a change in the type of jobs available, and the way that work is done. The future of work has become a catch cry and is often associated with very positive or negative predictions about job opportunities or disappearance of jobs (see discussion in Chapter 6). Some of these changes are already detectable. Thus, the standard employment relationship an assumption that work is full time, stable, with set hours and unionised is no longer the case for most New Zealanders. Many people work part time or long hours and job and income insecurity appear on the rise. Technology is disrupting boundaries between work and leisure, something that has become pronounced after the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Businesses often want the flexibility of longer operating hours and variable staff rosters and can use contracting models to better control wage and salary costs. Thus, many people work as contractors and contracting has become dominant in certain industries and occupations. Recently, contractors have started to provide services administered by various web-based platforms as part of the gig economy.

Overall, there are many influences beyond the local and national labour markets. Workers in New Zealand compete in globalised job markets as firms outsource production to countries with lower labour costs. Furthermore, government policies facilitate immigration and emigration, allowing the New Zealand workforce and its skill and education makeup to change faster than it would without international labour mobility.

This chapter defines employment relations, the different levels of employment relations and it examines the key actors who influence employment relations. The chapter also overviews the basic elements of an employment agreement and will in subsequent chapters deal with historical and current changes to the employment agreement itself and to its key components such as pay, hours, leave and dispute resolution. The chapter will also highlight the distinction between employees and contractors and why this distinction came to be of great importance. Finally, we focus on employment institutions which deals with disagreements over employment agreements and disputes in workplaces. As there has been rapid change to employment relations including an expansion of employee rights and less collective bargaining coverage there has been considerable focus on court-based employment decisions.

Finally, there are major disagreements about core employment relations issues and how to interpret the above-mentioned changes and influences. How we view employment relations is contentious as we each have our own outlook (or perspective) based on our individual set of beliefs and values (as discussed in Chapter 2). Often, we tend to align ourselves with those who share our views and the various perspectives can be found in disagreements between the key parties in employment relations as well as political decisions on legislative frameworks and employee rights (see Chapters 3, 4 and 5).