General Publications
Department of Labour Annual Report 2006
Vote Labour
Output class: Services to promote and support fair and productive employment relationships
Description
This output class contributed to the following medium-term goals:
- New Zealand workplaces effectively balance employers’ and employees’ needs and interests by providing information and tools about good employment practices, providing mediation services, investigating complaints and enforcing minimum standards
- Increased awareness and uptake of excellent workplace practices by providing information and tools to assist employers and employees to prevent and reduce employment relationship problems and to promote best practice in the workplace.
Activities
Activities carried out included:
- providing information and tools about good employment practices that help employers and employees prevent or reduce the frequency and impact of employment relationship problems
- mediation services that help resolve employment relationship issues
- investigating complaints and enforcing minimum standards
- providing support services to the Employment Relations Authority and Remuneration Authority
- administering the Employment Relations Education Fund for developing and running training courses that increase understanding of employment relations
Performance information
Results measures
Performance standard
Performance to 30 June 2006
The percentage of workplaces improving workplace practices following a departmental intervention.
New measure.
The Department commissioned trial survey methods to get feedback on customer satisfaction of the Department’s services provided to workplaces. Feedback was obtained about the Workplace Contact Centre, Small Business Information unit and Workplace Services.
The Workplace Contact Centre is the primary departmental provider of workplace information. The Small Business Information unit delivers information and tools to the small and medium-sized enterprises’ community and support networks. Workplace Services include professional and specialist service and support for workplaces about health and safety and employment relations.
These pilot surveys established an indicative performance baseline and informed options for future service development and workplace practice change. As the exercise was a pilot, different methods were used for the different service delivery streams. Just over 700 clients participated in the surveys.2
Workplace Contact Centre: 38% of 215 clients surveyed reported a change or intended change in their workplace practices as a result of information provision. However, 73% of 215 clients surveyed indicated their existing knowledge of good or required workplace practices was confirmed. The margin of error for these results is ±6.7%.
Consisting of the Workplace Centre survey (n=215), Small Business Information unit survey (n=10), and Workplace Services survey (n=483).Workplace Services: Employers who were surveyed indicated that contact with the mediation services (86%) and the labour inspectorate (92%) either confirmed existing workplace practices or resulted in an intention to change workplace practice. This has a margin of error of ±6.7% and ±8.7% respectively.
The sample for the Small Business Information unit was too small for conclusions to be made .
The percentage of customers satisfied with the Department’s services, information and tools.
New measure.
The 2006 Workplace Group Customer Feedback Survey showed the following:
Workplace Contact Centre: Overall client satisfaction was 79%, and overall satisfaction with the information provided was 97%, for the 215 customers surveyed. The margin of error for these results is ±6.7%.
Small Business Information unit: A qualitative survey of 10 customers rates the content of departmental information provided as being satisfactory to excellent.3
There was a mix of positive and negative ratings of the Department’s tools, in particular, the Department’s website did not rate well.
Workplace Services: Overall satisfaction with mediation services was 75% and with the Labour Inspectorate services was 81%. The margins of error were ±6.7% and ±8.7% respectively .
The Chief of the Employment Relations Authority and Remuneration Authority Chair are satisfied with the Department’s support services (scale 1–5). Standard: 4 or higher.
The Chief of the Employment Relations Authority rated performance and satisfaction at 4 on a 1 to 5 scale (with 5 being the highest) in the December 2005 survey, and at 3 in the June 2006 survey. The decrease reflects a drop in information available to the Authority as a result of the initial transition phase to a new information system, which occurred in this period.
The Chair of the Remuneration Authority rated the support and services provided by the Department at 5 on a 1 to 5 scale (with 5 being the highest) in the March 2006 survey, and at 4 in the June 2006 survey.
Percentage of formal complaints where investigations commenced within one month of receipt. Standard: 95%.
The Department commenced an investigation of 94% of formal complaints within one month of receipt.
The percentage of employment relations problems settled before or at mediation. Standard: 75%.
The Department resolved 86% of employment relations problems before or at mediation.
Percentage of information talks, seminars and presentations delivered to workplace participants in priority areas. Standard: 80%.
This indicator cannot be measured for 2005/06 as staff entered details during the transition to the new information system in different ways, preventing either a count or a reasonable estimate.
Activity information
Number of priority targeted workplaces contacted to offer best practice advice and assistance and, where relevant, to assess ongoing compliance. Estimate: 200.
It is estimated that labour inspectors visited approximately 150 high-risk workplaces this year. An accurate number of high-risk workplaces visited cannot be reported this year as this information was not recorded in the new information system. This will be rectified for 2006/07.
Number of information talks, seminars or presentations to targeted workplaces. Estimate: 350 to 450.
This indicator cannot be measured for 2005/06 as staff entered details during the transition to the new information system in different ways, preventing either a count or a reasonable estimate.
Number of applications for minimum wage exemptions investigated. Estimate: 400.
The Department issued 445 minimum wage exemptions in 2005/06.
Number of requests for mediation assistance received and closed. Estimate: 8,000 to 9,000.
The Department closed 9,205 requests for mediation in 2005/06.
Number of applications for problem resolution received and processed by the Employment Relations Authority. Estimate: 2,100 to 2,300.
The Employment Relations Authority received 2,086 applications for problem resolution in 2005/06.
Number of cases from the Employment Relations Authority referred or directed to mediation services. Estimate: 1,200.
The Employment Relations Authority referred or directed 823 applications to mediation services.
This result undercounts the referrals, as different practices are used in the legacy system and in the new system to track cases between the Authority and mediation. This will be resolved once the data from the old system is fully migrated to the new information system early in 2006/07.
Number of determinations the Remuneration Authority expects to make, including those for local authorities and community boards. Estimate: 250.
The Remuneration Authority issued 89 determinations (including one covering local government elected members). A determination can cover multiple positions.
General Publications
Department of Labour Annual Report 2006
The decrease in appropriation of $0.642 million in the Supplementary Estimates was due to a fiscally neutral transfer reduction of the allocation of corporate costs.
Offset by the final amount of expenditure transfers from 2004/05 for:
- the Partnership Resource Centre, due to the late start of the Centre and project work continuing into the 2005/06 financial year
- the Pay and Employment Equity Unit, due to delays in Ministerial approval for the audit tool and review of the pilot process for the finalisation and delivery of education and training packages and programmes.
Footnotes
2 Consisting of the Workplace Centre survey (n=215), Small Business Information Unit survey (n=10), and Workplace Services survey (n=483).
3 Customer satisfaction ranged between 3.0 and 4.5 on a 1 to 5 rating scale (where 1= extremely low satisfaction and 5= extremely high satisfaction).