New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations

Table of Contents 47(1)

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Editorial 47(1)

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Temporary migrant worker exploitation in New Zealand: A qualitative study of migrants’ and stakeholders’ views

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Over the last two decades, New Zealand has increasingly relied on temporary migrant workers (TMWs) to address labour shortages. This reliance has occurred as part of changes to the immigration system, including working visa conditions and growing diversity in the nationalities and occupations of TMWs entering New Zealand. Correspondingly, there has been a continuous increase in reports of TMWs’ labour exploitation. Based on 131 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2019, we outline multiple factors that enable TMWs’ exploitation. We analyse both TMWs’ and stakeholders’ views, and within the latter group, we look at both the demand and supply sides. We discuss related matters, including policy initiatives addressing the issue.

Research Note: How modern slavery legislation might reimagine New Zealand companies’ supply chains

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Following other countries that have introduced or are about to enforce modern slavery legislation, New Zealand is considering a Modern Slavery Act. This research note argues that for such legislation – whether imposing transparency or due diligence requirements – to be effective, it needs to be clear about the reach of those duties with respect to companies’ supply chains. This clarity is currently missing in foreign legislation; New Zealand has a chance to rectify this and introduce legislation that stimulates constructive change in the behaviour of organisations.

Research note: Empirical analysis of ethnic pay gaps in New Zealand

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This research note explores the factors contributing to ethnic pay gaps in New Zealand. The emphasis here is on description, as a causal analysis is beyond the capability of the methods used. The gaps between the average (as well as median) hourly wages for the European workforce relative to Māori and Pacific workers are substantial. A statistical analysis by Treasury in 2018 also showed that the ratio in average hourly wages (based on published survey estimates by Stats NZ) for both ethnic groups relative to European had stayed at a similar level for the last decade; as they state “there has been movement from year to year but no consistent upward or downward trend” (Treasury, 2018, p.1).

Towards the platformisation of employment in post-pandemic Aotearoa New Zealand? Evidence from the Future Worlds of Work survey

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It has been widely recognised in the international literature that the impacts of the pandemic on workers have been experienced unevenly, most severely affecting women, minorities, and those on insecure contracts. At the same time, Covid-19 has accelerated technologically driven developments such as platform work and online freelancing. To provide evidence for these shifts in Aotearoa New Zealand, a survey (n=570) was completed by a sample aged over 18 and employed in the previous 12 months. The survey found uneven experiences of pandemic-related disruption, particularly for those in insecure forms of work, Māori, and frontline workers in hospitality and retail. Further, there was evidence for the emergence of a culture of “digital hustling” among younger people, who are seeking supplementary forms of income from the online world, while 43 per cent of respondents with an employment agreement were required to use a smartphone as part of their job. I use these findings to develop the concept of platformisation, capturing broad impacts of digital technology on workplaces, together with trends towards precarity and individual responsibility. The results have implications for public policy analyses of a “tight labour market” which can negate the unevenly felt effects of an economic slowdown.

Exclusion and inaction: Academic precariat experiences of union representation in Aotearoa New Zealand

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During the last 40 years, neoliberal reforms to the tertiary sector have led to the casualisation of academic labour and the emergence of an academic precariat in Aotearoa New Zealand. Despite the increasing size of the academic precariat, it does not appear that their voices, concerns, or interests have been adequately represented by the national tertiary union. By drawing on open-text responses from the Precarious Academic Work Survey (PAWS) about what unions could do to improve precarious academic working conditions, we discuss the issues created by the under-representation of precarious academics by the sector union. We communicate the results via four key themes of exclusion, participation, voice, and organising. Most participants articulated frustration and disaffection with the union, suggesting the need for a shift in strategy. This study adds to the growing body of employment relations research recognising that employee voices are multiple, diverse, and fragmented; indicating that unions must attend to the differential experiences of people working in the tertiary sector attributable to employment practices.

Ethical Leadership and Employee Mental Health: Comparing Private and Public Sector Employees

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Ethical leadership research mainly focuses on job outcomes while largely ignoring the potential influence on employee mental health. We seek to rectify this by examining the links between ethical leadership and work-life balance, anxiety, and depression. In addition, we include the role of organisational trust due to the important links between ethical leadership and trust. With two samples from the public sector and private sector, and using structural equation modelling, we find consistent effects across both samples. Ethical leadership is positively related to all outcomes, but organisational trust mediates the influence on work-life balance (fully in public sector, and partially in private sector), and fully mediates the influence towards anxiety and depression (both samples). In addition, we find that work-life balance also partially mediates the influence of organisational trust on anxiety and depression. This highlights the importance of organisational trust and work-life balance for ethical leaders to better alleviate mental health issues in the workplace.

How Managers Make Sense of Human Resource Management’s Role in Building Trust: Enacting Espoused Human Resource Management in Indian Gas and Petrol Public Sector Organisations

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The desire to mobilise effective strategic human resource management in India’s new public management domain has seen the role of organisational trust receive greater scholarly and practical scrutiny. This study explores managers’ perception of HRM’s role in building organisational trust in five public sector organisations in India using exploratory multiple case studies. In implementing HRM, the findings suggest that managers are cognisant of specific human resource practices that can be socially adapted to enhance their effectiveness. Implications from the study’s emergent process model of human resource management and trust highlight the cross-level influences that affect India’s public sector organisations’ outcomes.

Employment Advocate vs Employment Lawyer: A comparative analysis between New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom

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New Zealand is facing a burgeoning number of employment advocates in its legal system, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. As part of the enactment of the Employment Relations Act (ERA) 2000, New Zealand’s parliament intended that employment disputes be resolved in a non-adversarial and efficient manner that required little legal representation. Employment advocates are meant to meet that need; a relatable agent for an employment litigant that resolves disputes faster and cheaper. However, there have been increasing concerns from the employment judges, the New Zealand Law Society, lawyers and the public about the professionalism and competency of employment advocates. Recent case law questions whether employment advocates can continue to operate without restrictions or an oversight body. This paper demonstrates why some employment advocates operate below the standards expected by the courts and the impact it has on their employment litigants or clients. An international comparison to paid agents in Australia and McKenzie friends in the United Kingdom is also included. This paper recommends that the current operations of employment advocates undermine employment litigants’ access to justice and that New Zealand’s parliament needs to reconsider the role of employment advocates in employment disputes.

Giddens’ structuration theory and human resource practice in small firms

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We studied HR practices in New Zealand small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by analysing semi-structured interviews with 48 SME owners-managers using Giddens’ structuration theory as an analysis lens. HR practices were shaped by routinised actions of actors, and employee agency was strong, as action (or lack of it) by a single employee could have implications for the whole firm. Employees were not purely economic agents, as the quality of work experience and family circumstances could shape their behaviour more than financial compensation. HR practices were reproduced through the reflexive actions of owners-managers, employees and their family members as well as of external agents, such as suppliers and regulators. The analysis suggests that, to implement HR practices, such as hiring, employee development, and employee retention/dismissal in small firms successfully, owners-managers should treat employees and members of their families as powerful actors co-creating, rather than merely being subject to, HR practices.

The major parties: National’s and Labour’s employment relations policies

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The past two decades have seen new directions in New Zealand employment relations (ER) with ongoing shifts away from previous neo-liberal models. Most recently, two Labour-led governments have introduced a number of significant moves, ranging from changes to improved statutory minima and conditions, through to gender pay equity provisions and new protections for workers with labour-hire agencies. Another set of longer-term programmes were initiated but not completed, including holidays, protections for contractors and income insurance. Legislation providing for sector-wide Fair Pay Agreements was passed but no agreements have been concluded yet.

The future directions of ER will largely be determined by the outcome of the 2023 General Election. The policies of the two main political parties, Labour and National, will be influential, although one week out from the election close, some policy areas have not yet been made available to the public. The situation will be further complicated by the MMP (mixed-member proportional) system which may see coalition or support arrangements negotiated with minor parties who have their own, separate ER policies.

Minor parties and employment relations at the 2023 election

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After three years of the first single-party majority government of the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) era, the 2023 general election in Aotearoa New Zealand will result in a return to the historical norm: a government containing a major party with one or more minor political parties in a formal coalition, or a minority government relying on minor parties for support. Thus, the employment relations policies, the priorities and the power of these minor parties becomes important for assessing the likely trajectory of employment relations policy (ER) in the coming three years. Indeed, recent polling suggests that minor parties will have an unusually large degree of influence. At the time of writing, opinion polls suggest that the combined support for the minor parties is at levels not seen since 2002, with support for the two major parties correspondingly low. This article analyses the positions of the various minor parties likely to be in parliament after the election and speculates on how these parties might seek to influence the employment relations agenda of the next government.