NZJER editors receive prestigious long-term contribution awards

At the 2025 annual conference of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ), the editors of the New Zealand Journal of Employment – Dr Felicity Lamm and Dr Erling Rasmussen - both received the Vic Taylor Long Term Contribution Award 2024. This prestigious award has had many well-known Australian and New Zealand recipients (see AIRAANZ Award, 2023).

During the presentation speeches, the academic achievements of Dr Lamm and Dr Rasmussen were outlined (see the brief overviews below). However, their contributions as editors of the NZJER and as authors of the New Zealand Employment Relations textbook were singled out as crucial achievements. They have been editors of the NZJER since 2004 and their textbook writing started in the late 1990s. In particular, the move towards genuine Open Access of the NZJER and textbooks were lauded as a way of opening academic research to practitioners and other interested parties (a discussion of the journey towards Open Access, see Rasmussen, Lamm & Molineaux, 2022).

Dr Felicity Lamm has been teaching and researching in the areas of occupational health and safety (OHS), risk management and employment relations for over 30 years. This has included employment and OHS law in the small business sector, OHS issues in agriculture, construction, forestry, mining and fishing sectors, consultancy projects and collaborative research with OHS practitioners. Felicity was also the inaugural Co-Director of the Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) between 2007 and 2024. In 2018, she was appointed the Chief Advisor Occupational Health and Safety for the New Zealand Government. Felicity is still doing research for New Zealand and overseas public and private sector organisations as well as being involved in university and polytechnic teaching

Dr Erling Rasmussen has worked in employment relations in academia, the public and private sectors and in several OECD countries since the late 1970s. This has involved international collaborative research and undertaking research for governments, businesses and unions. Besides his work as a Policy Advisor for New Zealand governments in the 1980s and 1990s, Erling has been involved in evaluations of public policy and legislation, including the Employment Contracts Act 1991 and the Employment Relations Act 2000. This was further extended by his edited books on the Employment Relations Act (2004, 2010). Erling is still participating in research projects, with a focus on historical employment relations changes, employee participation and Danish employment relations.  

AIRAANZ Award, 2023. https://www.airaanz.org/awards/vic-taylor-distinguished-long-term-contribution-award

Rasmussen, E., Lamm, F. & Molineaux, J. 2020. ’Open Access Publishing: The historical and current developments surrounding changes at the New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations.’ New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 44(3): 2-10.