Flexibility, Casualization and Externalization in the New Zealand workforce

Abstract

The New Zealand Employment Contracts Act was introduced in 1991 to make the labour market more flexible. However, it is far from clear that the New Zealand labour market was inflexible. This paper represents the results of a survey of employers which was conducted when the Employment Contracts Act was conting into effect. The paper finds that the labour market was not inflexible and that employers had been able to successfully casualize and externalize labour under the pre-existirzg legal environment. The study finds further that the employer pursuit of flexibility was not part of an unrelenting drive to achieve new forms of work but was, in general, an opportunistic reaction to recession. Furthermore, employers anticipate that growth in employment, when it comes, will be in perma nent full-time jobs rather than in casual or externalized employment.