Employment Relationship Problems: Costs, Benefits and Choices
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Introduction
The Employment Relations Act was introduced in 2000 to provide the framework for regulating relationships between employers and employees. The Act recognises "that employment relationships must be built on good faith behaviour" (Section 3(a)(i)) and the "inherent inequality of bargaining power in employment relationships" (Section 3(a)(ii)).
This report examines some of the prevalent beliefs about the operation of these provisions of the Act, and determines the extent to which these beliefs are supported by the research evidence. It also provides information about how employment relationship problems develop, and the costs and benefits of employment relationship problems (ERPs). Finally, it gathers lessons from those case study employers who appeared most successful in minimising the costs and maximising the benefits of ERPs.
The Department of Labour has conducted research into the operation of the personal grievance provisions of the Act, including a long term and short term series of projects.
Long term research programme:
- a survey of businesses, with 852 respondents, of which 130 had experienced disputes during the previous 12 months;
- a survey of public sector organisations, with 130 respondents of which 40 had experienced disputes during the previous 12 months;
- case studies of 15 disputes
Short term research programme (previously reported):
- a survey of mediations carried out over a one month period,
- a review of Employment Relations Authority determinations over the same period; and
- a series of focus groups.
Results from the long term research programme provided the main source for the findings presented in this report, with additional information from the short term research programme used where pertinent.
Appendix I provides more information about the research methodology.