Dsicuss about the New Zealand Journal Of Employment Relations.
Collective bargaining is the system which is applied in the case of negotiation regarding joint employment agreements. It has meant stated that any successful collective bargaining could help in improving workplace productivity by establishing a healthy relationship between employee and the employer through the union members. However, in New Zealand, though the majority of the people including the Government and the stakeholders support collective bargaining in the workplace, the collective agreement has not been able to increase in New Zealand (Grimshaw, Bosch & Rubery, 2014). Though the majority of the people of New Zealand supports collective bargaining in the workplace, but still with the changes in the public policies individual business tends to increase. Although many legislation and rules are in support of the collective Government under the Employment Relations Act 2000, still current Government could not be able to rise in New Zealand. The thesis statement is that for several years the legislation and the Government are in support of the collective Government in New Zealand, but still, it has not increased in New Zealand.
In the present days, the gradual shift from the collectivism bargaining to individual bargaining in New Zealand has led to incremental changes in the relationship between the employer and the employee. Though the majority of the people of New Zealand supports collective bargaining in the workplace, but still with the changes in the public policies individual bargaining tends to increase. As a result, there has been a rise in the personal business to improve the own right of the employee. The New Zealand Employment Relation Act, 2000 (ERA), provides a clear structure and system for negotiation between the employee and the unions, so that by joining hands together and through talks they can enter into collective agreements (Rasmussen & Greenwood, 2014). Whereas, individual, collective bargaining also comes under within this act, where employees can directly negotiate with their employers and enter into cooperative agreements. With much support from the legislation and Government, collective bargaining in New Zealand could not be able to increase much because of specific reasons. First, the individual employee and the employer rights have become profound that means employee does not want to include any third party such as the labour unions to address their grievances to the employer. In the opinion of McCrystal (2016), employees think the best way to solve their problems is through direct communication with the employer through individual bargaining. This had put influence on the perception of employee and the employer, which has resulted in shifting from collectivism bargaining to individual bargaining. As opined by Visser (2016), the comprehensive rights of the employees cut across the New-Zealand experiment during the year 1984, when the Government and the Labour Union encouraged the free market model and deregulation within the country. In that case, employees were not provided with their fundamental rights, and thus this had lead to the individualistic bargaining in New Zealand. One of the primary reasons that have not lead to the increase of collective agreement in New Zealand is that although the Employment Relation Act 2000 supports the collective bargaining and unionism. But then in the recent days, the coverage and benefits of the collective bargaining had declined that lead to the increase in individual bargaining in the modern days.
It is important to be noted that most of the private sector organizations in New Zealand do not support collective bargaining, as the private sector industries have a negative perception and confusion regarding collective bargaining. Moreover, the inability and the unwillingness of the employees to adopt the collective bargaining also lead to the decrease in the collective bargaining system in New Zealand. As per the recent report, it has been noted that from the last fifteen years the density of the collective government has been drastically decreased and the number of union members in New Zealand has resulted to 117 members in the year 2016 (Bailey et al., 2015). New Zealand has always been recognized as a country with the proper industrial relation that has provided shape to the collective government within the country. To strengthen collective Government in New Zealand, the Government has altered the legislation structure to bolster union members so that more employees join the collective bargaining. As there were not many industries in the past, the collective bargaining provided positive outcomes to the employees. However, after the increase in a large number of private sectors in New Zealand, the policies of the collective government could not be able to follow by the employees, and there was much confusion all around, and that did not tend to increase the group bargaining. According to Cuyper, Witte & Isaksson (2017), the Employment Contracts Act 1991 (ECA), also encouraged the implementation of the individualism bargaining between the employee and the employment relationship at the cost of collective bargaining, results in the declination of collective bargaining. As per the report, the collective density rate in the private industries was only 50%, whereas, on the other hand, there has been an increase in the individual density rate (McCrystal, 2016). The report collected by the Industrial Relation Centre in Victoria University showed the decrease in the union membership in the last fifteen years and accordingly stated that to increase collective bargaining in New Zealand, it is essential to increase the number of members in the union that could promise a positive future for collective bargaining. According to the data, collective bargaining in the private sector of New Zealand covers only 12.6% and thus the collective bargaining is focussed only on two sectors that include manufacturing sector and the transport sector (Rasmussen, Foster & Farr, 2016). However, it is to be regarded that with the increase in the union membership, collective bargaining could not be able to increase in New Zealand, though the legislations and other policies support collective Government and have also increased by 15%. In New Zealand, although ERA promotes collective bargaining, major city of the small enterprises did not show any signs of changing their system to collective bargaining. However, the employees’ perception of collective bargaining also affects the increase of collective bargaining in New Zealand. According to the employees, collective bargaining hampers the decision making process within the workplace, and it also affects company’s policies and rules. According to Freeman (2016), the Freeman and Medoff’s piece of work stated that though collective bargaining focuses on the economic and social benefits of the employers, then it has been found that the labour unions tend to benefit the employees by reducing the revenue and profit of the organization.
Although there have been reports that majority of the people in New Zealand believes that to promote collective bargaining in New Zealand, the trade unions members are constantly changing their structure by improving their overall activities with the support of the legislation to strengthen collective bargaining (Walpole, 2015). It is important to note that the Government’s Fair Pay Agreement tends to alter the pay structure of the employees to strengthen the union members and collective bargaining. According to Anderson (2017), the Government is planning to implement changes in the fair structure that would be similar to the structure of the national awards system. In the opinion of Scott (2014), the principle of national award system, the terms and conditions remain set in such a way that will help in the promotion of the collective bargaining in New Zealand. Therefore, to promote collective bargaining in New Zealand, the legislation and the Government decided to prohibit strikes of the union members and before that arbitration has been kept mandatory for the union members to support collective bargaining. As per the report, during the year 1984, under the fourth Labour Government, arbitration had been completely prohibited from the labour Government system that results in the decrease of the collective bargaining in the workplace (Toomey, 2015). Therefore, to promote collective government, arbitration was being made compulsory, and in cases related to negotiation, if the employees do not find any better opportunities to settle, they could shift to individualistic bargaining. Employment Relations Act 2000, has been introduced to support the collective bargaining has been regarded as “ good faith” but nothing has resulted in good faith as collective bargaining in the present day could not able to increase in New Zealand. The good faith covers some basic rules such as aim to focus on the bargaining behaviour of the employees, and also try to make certain misleading demands and requirements as unlawful. Before this, it has also denoted that both the agreements are open to the employees, but collective bargaining if executed properly will tend to provide better success and opportunities to the employees (Scott, 2014). Although Government and the legislations are trying hard to promote collective bargaining in New Zealand and accordingly implemented significant changes in the policies and procedures, then it could not increase the collective agreement in New Zealand.
Conclusion
From the above essay, it could be concluded that under the Employment Relations Act 2000, Government of New Zealand tries to promote collective bargaining in the workplace, but nothing has provided any positive outcomes. Majority of the employees supports the individualistic negotiation under the Employment Contracts Act 1991. With the decrease in the number of union membership in New Zealand, employees’ attitude and perception towards collective bargaining have also changed. Most important reason for the reduction in collective bargaining in New Zealand is that individual agreements tend to provide better control to the employees in respect to the terms and conditions of the employees and employee could directly address their problems to the employer. However, The Government of New Zealand is introducing the useful measure to increase collective bargaining such as it has added Fair Pay Agreement that would provide employees with equal and fair pay for their job role.
References
Anderson, G. (2017). A Proposal for Four Key Reforms to New Zealand’s Labour Law.
Bailey, J., Price, R., Pyman, A., & Parker, J. (2015). Union power in retail: Contrasting cases in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (Online), 40(1), 1.
De Cuyper, N., De Witte, H., & Isaksson, K. (2017). Employment Contracts–How to Deal with Diversity?. In Employment contracts and well-being among European workers (pp. 21-40). Routledge.
Freeman, R. B. (2016). Getting Here from There. Labor and Democracy in the Transition to a Market System, 139.
Grimshaw, D., Bosch, G., & Rubery, J. (2014). Minimum wages and collective bargaining: What types of pay bargaining can foster positive pay equity outcomes?. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 52(3), 470-498.
McCrystal, S. (2016). Organising Middle Earth? Collective bargaining and film production workers in New Zealand.
Rasmussen, E. R. L. I. N. G., & Greenwood, G. A. Y. E. (2014). Conflict Resolution in New Zealand. The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management in Organizations, 449-474.
Rasmussen, E., Foster, B., & Farr, D. (2016). The battle over employers’ demand for “more flexibility” Attitudes of New Zealand employers. Employee Relations, 38(6), 886-906.
Scott, J. (2014). Mechanisms for resolving collective bargaining disputes in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (Online), 39(2), 62.
Ting?Toomey, S. (2015). Identity negotiation theory. The international encyclopedia of interpersonal communication.
Visser, J. (2016). What happened to collective bargaining during the great recession?. IZA Journal of Labor Policy, 5(1), 9.
Walpole, K. (2015). The Fair Work Act: Encouraging collective agreement-making but leaving collective bargaining to choice. Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 25(3), 205-218.
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