Collective Bargaining and New Zealand's Employment Contracts Act: One Year On

Abstract

Thefirst year of bargaining under New Zealand's Employment Contracts Act brought some very significant changes to the nature and structure of bargaining outcomes. This paper reports a major study of collective bargaining outcomes. Collective bargaining is the preferred option for 80 per cent of employers with fifty or more staff; however, the number of workers covered by collective bargains in New Zealand dropped from 721 000 in 1989-90 to an estimated 440 000 by 1991-92. The collapse of collective bargaining did not occur evenly across industries. Significant collapses happened in agriculture, food and beverage manufacturing, the textile and clothing industry, the paper and printing industry, building and construction, retailing, restaurants and hotels and the transport industry. Collective bargaining retains a strong foothold in the electricity and gas production sector, the public sector, the finance sector, the communication industry and the basic and advanced metal manufacturing sectors. A content analysis of 471 collective employment contracts (covering nearly 130 000 workers) settled in the first year of the new legislation is reported here. The data show a wide dispersion of wage settlements as the comparative wage justice system collapses; about half of the workers in the sample, however, received either a wage decrease or no increase over the preceding settlement. Important changes to working time arrangements have been negotiated and these are reported along with other content changes to working time and leave arrangements.