Southern employers on enterprise bargaining

Abstract

With recently proposed amendments to the 1987 Labour Relations Act, the Government has moved another step towards embracing enterprise bargaining as a cornerstone of future New Zealand labour relations. This paper reports the opinions on enterprise bargaining of a sample of 92 employers in Otago and Southland. The employers are found to be equally divided in their preferences between enterprise bargaining and the award system. However, there is no evidence of widespread overt dissatisfaction with the functioning of the award system.