New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (2004), 29(3): 1

A Note from the Editors
It is with great pleasure that we present this special issue of the New Zealand Journalof Employment Relations. Non-standard work, the focus of the issue, has been a majorarea of interest for academics across a range of disciplines for some time now. Initially theinterest was in how best to describe and deﬁne non-standard work. Since then however,the debates have moved on signiﬁcantly, to the extent that it has generally become
accepted that forms of non-standard work will play a major role in contemporary labour
markets. The content of this edition, with its Australian and New Zealand focus and with
the inclusion of both theoretical and case study material, is intended to advance thedebate further by providing different angles and new empirical research of non-standard
work.
The Spoonley article provides a useful backdrop to the issue of non-standard work as
it outlines forms of non-standard work – part-time, casual, ﬁxed term, own account selfemployment and multiple job holding – and discusses policy and employment issues
around how to ensure both worker protection and employer ﬂexibility.
Temporary agency work is the topic of two articles. Burgess, Rasmussen and Connell
overview trends in temporary agency work in Australia and New Zealand and ﬁnd that
temporary agency work remains largely outside the regulatory framework governing
employment. The blurred employment status of agency workers fosters a continuous
tension between ﬂexibility and protection, with little academic research detailing how
individuals deal with this tension.
Alach and Inkson, in their article on the new ‘ofﬁce temp’, demonstrate that, while
temporary workers may still be exploited, the broadly held view of the temp as ‘victim’,no longer holds. Temping can provide workers with the ﬂexibility they need to manageother responsibilities and interests and some workers can exploit the temping situation
to their advantage.
In the de Bruin and Dupuis article, it is argued that the polarised macro positions thathave become entrenched around the issue of workplace ﬂexibility are not especially
useful in illuminating the complexities of the operation of contemporary labour markets.
They use case study material on the screen production industry to make the point that forsome industries at least, workplace ﬂexibility has become a necessary prerequisite andinherent component for the successful operation of the industry.
Taylor, McClintock, Baines and Newell tackle the topic of multiple job holdings. Using
both Census and interview data, these authors demonstrate the way that multiple job
holding is a key strategy used by farm families to support their household and farmincomes. Economic reasons, the drive for personal fulﬁlment and the entrepreneurial

1 Introduction 26 Jan 05.indd 1

26/01/2005 7:13:17 p.m.

2 Ann Dupuis and Erling Rasmussen

ethos of farm families are offered as reasons why multiple job holdings are becoming
increasingly common in the agricultural sector.
Finally, May, Walsh and Otto present a 2003 review of union membership in New Zealand.
While this article does not deal with non-standard work, its ﬁndings do indicate that unions
ﬁnd it difﬁcult to gain a stronghold in industries with high levels of non-standard work.
Unions have become marginalised or non-existent in many private sector organisations.
Ann Dupuis and Erling Rasmussen

1 Introduction 26 Jan 05.indd 2

26/01/2005 7:13:18 p.m.

Non-Standard Work 3

Is Non-Standard Work Becoming Standard?
Trends and Issues
PAUL SPOONLEY*

Abstract
There is some evidence to suggest that the standardised employment patterns of postwar industrial capitalism might have constituted a period of exceptionalism and that nonstandard work will increasingly dominate in service economies that seek to minimise ortransfer labour costs and enhance various forms of ﬂexible labour. Statistical evidence for
New Zealand suggests contradictory trends: in recent decades, the numbers of employed
in standard work have grown, but there has also been a considerable expansion in nonstandard work options and numbers. Employment relations are now much more diverse.
Given that much of the current labour policy framework in New Zealand is derived froma period when standardised employment conditions prevailed, the adequacy of thatframework needs to be brought into question. This paper explores some of the growing
issues and tensions arising from the conditional nature of non-standard employment andthe adequacy of legislative and policy frameworks.

Introduction
In most advanced economies, with the rate of non-traditional employment forms growing
faster than the rate of full-time work (see duRivage, 1992: 89), working arrangements
have undergone a fundamental transformation. Employment, and the role of work asa critical factor in economic security and social cohesion, are changing (International
Labour Review, 2002; see also OECD, 2004). As a result, it is important to engage inan ongoing process of reﬂection on the way in which society and labour markets arechanging, whether policies and legislation adequately reﬂect these changes and whether
they beneﬁt all those involved. “Well managed change is an essential element of equitabledevelopment” (ILO, 2002:34), none more so than in relation to the nature of employment
and the equitable distribution of a fundamental private and public good: paid work that is
fulﬁlling and sustainable.

* Paul Spoonley is Professor of Sociology and Regional Director (Auckland)/Research Director for the Collegeof Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University. He is the leader of the Labour Market Dynamics Research
Programme.
This research is part of the Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme, Massey University, which is funded by theFoundation for Research, Science and Technology. I would like to gratefully acknowledge the help of Eva McLaren,
Research Manager, LMDRP.

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 1

26/01/2005 7:15:41 p.m.

4 Paul Spoonley

Given the signiﬁcance of the transformation of working relationships, there is anincreasing debate about the actual nature of these relationships. What might bedescribed as standard employment has been the benchmark of labour relations andpolicy formulation during the twentieth century, and especially since World War II in New
Zealand. Consequently, a policy framework which is built around notions of standard
employment struggles to meet the needs of a signiﬁcantly differentiated workforce andmore diverse employment relations (Lowe, 2002:93). Several authors (duRivage, Carre,
Tilly, 1998) argue, for example, that US labour law is becoming increasingly out of datebecause of its inability to serve the needs of temporary, conditional workers as most law
is premised on the assumption that the primary and most dominant constituency arethose in permanent, full-time employment. Furthermore, there is a growing polarisation
between permanent and temporary workers (Fudge and Vosko, 2001). As a result, it
is argued that the focus for labour policy must be the workplace “where relationships
among co-workers and between workers and management can either hinder or enable
the achievement of major social and economic goals” (Lowe, 2002:93). Careers nolonger depend on traditional notions of advancement within one hierarchical organisation(Stone, 2001: 554; see also Inkson, 2004) and stable employment associated with waged/salaried permanent work for a single employer is no longer the norm in many OECDlabour markets. Yet labour legislation in New Zealand, and elsewhere, is still largely
predicated on the notion of permanent employment and a strong attachment between
worker and company is assumed without taking into account the growing number ofconditional forms of employment.
Of all non-standard work forms, casual/temporary employment has become the mostdominant (Owens, 2001) and the fastest growing (Lowe, 2002). In fact, Owens suggeststhat in some centres in Australia, casual work has accounted for almost all employment
growth in the decade of the 1990s. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (AusStats:
Casual Employment, July 1999) showed that casual employees alone account for 26
percent of all workers in Australia – an increase from 13 percent in 1982. (As will be
discussed shortly, trends in New Zealand are similar). Furthermore, Campbell (1999)
notes that net employment growth in the 1990s in Australia has been in casual jobs. Yet
he suggests that if casuals were being used solely to meet the demands of short-term
irregular work, they would only comprise about two percent of the workforce.
Temporary employment has grown in most OECD countries in the last 20 years andconcerns have been raised that temporary jobs “may be crowding out more stable formsof employment, becoming an additional source of insecurity for workers and increasing
labour market dualism” (OECD, 2002: 127; see also OECD, 2004) between those
who are able to access permanent employment and those who do not. However, theemployment does vary considerably, in part due to the nature of labour market reform(if any) and the nature of employment protection and labour market regulatory regimes.
For instance, the incidence of temporary jobs differs considerably across the OECD

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 2

26/01/2005 7:15:41 p.m.

Non-Standard Work 5

countries. For example, changes in the share of part-time workers varies in the OECD
from a growth of almost 3 percent (Norway, Sweden) to a decline of 5 percent or more
(Ireland, Netherlands) in the 1990 to 2002 period (OECD, 2004: Table 1.6). The effecthas been to see signiﬁcant changes in the 40-hour work week and a diversiﬁcation ofwork schedules (OECD, 2004:38).
In the New Zealand context, the participation of particular groups in non-standard work
varies. Women continue to dominate some forms of temporary and part-time work, while
Maori and Paciﬁc peoples are disproportionately located in temporary work in some ofthe primary and services industries. Furthermore, immigrants and young workers arefound in various forms of non-standard work as a typical entry point to the labour market.
Whilst this way of working suits some people (e.g. women with domestic commitments
might prefer the ﬂexibility of non-standard work while still allowing them to stay connectedto the labour force – see Spoonley, de Bruin and Firkin, 2002; McLaren et al, 2004), thereis evidence to suggest that this location in temporary work, especially if it is involuntary,might have a negative impact on future employment prospects (OECD, 2004) andcontribute to scarring in terms of labour market options and trajectory. Temporary worktends to channel workers into lower skilled work with few opportunities to become betterskilled, full-time or to invest in training and education. This has implications for lifetime options and earnings and provides challenges to the conventional understandingof employment relationships and legislative frameworks. The origins of this model are
ﬁrmly rooted in the “campaigns of male industrial and white collar unions” (Cameronand Brosnan, 1998) dating from a period in the twentieth century when employment
involved a concentration of workers in mass production, typically in manufacturing, ineconomies which were subjected to national systems of regulation and worker/employer
representation. Cameron and Brosnan (1998) go further to suggest that the standard
working model is speciﬁcally a male model that has never really ﬁtted with the working
patterns of women. It could be added that it has not encompassed those in many forms ofprimary production and labour (now extended to service sectors), nor signiﬁcant numbersof Maori and more recently, Paciﬁc peoples.
The empirical question is the extent to which the standardised mass employment of
the twentieth century, supplemented by the universal systems of social support of thewelfare state, has now been replaced by non-standardised work and workfare. Was
the mid-twentieth century a period of exceptionalism marked by very high participation
rates amongst male breadwinners in secure employment during regular hours and for an
indeﬁnite period?

Trends in Employment in New Zealand
The National Government (1975-1984) adopted both a very conservative and a highlyinterventionist approach to economic management, including the labour market. The
status quo, from an orthodoxy concerning male breadwinners to the cultural control of2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 3

26/01/2005 7:15:41 p.m.

6 Paul Spoonley

industrial relations, from the protection of local producers, both primary and manufacturing,
to extensive controls on currency, was a key focus for government policy. It was left to areforming Labour Government (1984-1990) and some extreme neo-liberals in the earlyyears of the subsequent National Government (1990-1999) to alter the labour market
contracts and policies of mid-twentieth century New Zealand.
The Labour Government altered the role of the state as a key employer in the local labour
market via processes of privatisation and corporatisation, plus opened New Zealand tointernational competition and ownership, opening the way for expectations from some
employers and industries for labour to become more ﬂexible and to cost less. The National
Government introduced a radical recasting of employment law and relations with the
Employment Contracts Act 1991 (see Cameron and Brosnan, 1998). The effects havebeen to contribute to the way people engage in work, and to reshape the New Zealandlabour market in terms of employment relations. The New Zealand labour market has
always included a standard core with a periphery that was characterised by a mixture of
low pay, poor working conditions, employment insecurity and non-regular hours/seasons.
This split, between a highly attached core and a periphery that experiences varying
levels of attachment and security (Klare, 2002:17) has become exacerbated by recentchanges to the nature of working. The twentieth century distinction between standard
workers, most of whom would be classiﬁed as being part of the core, and the peripheryof part-time/seasonal/low paid workers, often Maori and women, has tended to become
more complicated. It might be more appropriate to describe employment as a continuumwith some core workers now choosing to become non-standard workers because of
the beneﬁts (ﬂexibility, income) it conveys, while the size and range of non-standard
work options have increased to range from highly insecure/low income employment towell-paid, high status, attractive income forms of non-standard work. To portray thesecomplex and varied options in terms of a core-periphery or primary-secondary labour
market might be too simplistic.
In relation to employment status, both paid and unpaid, Table 1 indicates the trends
since 1981. The percentage changes are provided for the period 1991-2001 because
the category “Employment Status Unavailable” is so large in 1981 and is a distorting
inﬂuence for the 1981 to 1991 decade. Several trends deserve attention. The ﬁrst isthat there has been an absolute as well as a percentage growth in the category fulltime waged and salaried workers between 1991 and 2001, although there is a decline
between 1981 and 2001 (a drop of 22,410 or 2.2 percent). The effects of reform in the
1980s impacted negatively on this category, followed by growth of almost 10 percent in
the 1990s (an increase of 97,503) so that this category represented 42.2 percent of all
those in employment (paid and unpaid) in 2001. Not all of those in this category would
be classed as core workers, especially given the churn that occurs in some sectors as
a ﬂexible labour market operates, combined with the low pay for some waged/salaried
employment (New Zealand employment costs grew by a mere 0.7 percent between
1991-2001 compared with average growth for the OECD of 2.3 percent; OECD, 2004:

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 4

26/01/2005 7:15:42 p.m.

Non-Standard Work 7

Table1.4). But alongside the numbers involved in full-time salaried/waged work, various
non-standard categories grew by substantial numbers in the same decade, notably for
unpaid family workers, part-time employees and employers, and self-employed.
What should be noted is the growth of full-time salary and wage earners as a proportionof the total employed, from 35.7 percent in 1991 to 42.2 percent in 2001, and an absoluteincrease in this category of 97,503. However, given an overall increase in those in work of
19 percent, the percentage growth of full-time wage and salaried workers of 9.8 percent
is modest. In contrast, the percentage increase of various non-standard workers in thesame decade, especially in terms of unpaid family workers, part-time employees andemployers and self-employed was signiﬁcant. If all part-time categories are aggregated,then 22 percent of those in work are in part-time work. Almost 10 percent are selfemployed (both full-time and part-time). The changes in some of these non-standard
categories deserves further discussion.
Table 1: Changes in Size of Employment Status Categories, 1981-2001

Source: Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme, unpublished Census statistics provided by J. Newell.

Part-Time Employment
Part-time work has increased since 1945 and almost a quarter of those in the labour
market work on a part-time basis (21.1 percent excluding unpaid family workers). Thisis a typical form of employment for many New Zealanders. But in addition, that part-timework is dominated by female labour, although there are some signs that male workers

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 5

26/01/2005 7:15:42 p.m.

8 Paul Spoonley

might be beginning to accept part-time work in greater numbers (see Bosworth, Dawkins
and Stromback, 1996:399). An interesting issue is whether the importance of part-timework and the involvement of females in this form of employment reﬂects the ﬂexibility of
the labour market and its ability to adjust to changes or whether it reﬂects the low cost
wage requirements of a service economy and the need for a reserve army of labour(Bosworth, Dawkins and Stromback, 1996:399). Table 3 (see below) indicates that thegrowth of service employment represents an important growth in demand for part-timeworkers but in terms of employment preferences, the question is whether part-time workis the preferred option. It is undoubtedly for some.
Hours of Work
The standard hours of working – 8.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday – has given way
to more diverse working arrangements in relation to when work is carried out.
The decoupling of hours from capital operating time, including weekend working,compressed work weeks, [and] standby contracts…With the growth of both shift
working and “ﬂexibilisation” …weekends [have become] a more integral part of the“normal” working week (Bosworth, Dawkins and Stromback, 1996:399).
This “extensiﬁcation” of work means that working “unsocial” hours has become much
more common, especially (but not exclusively) in service employment which operates
through unsocial periods to meet demand (hospitality industries, emergency medical
services) and to increase productivity (a “long hours culture”; see OECD, 2004). The
effect can be seen in taking work home in order to manage workloads, being on shortnotice call, making complex and time-consuming domestic arrangements and working insplit-shifts and the reduction of time for non-paid activities (issues of work-life balance)(see OECD, 2004). The extensiﬁcation of work hours has been accompanied by theintensiﬁcation of work, or increased work intensity. The EU has developed a “Working
Time Directive” in recognition of trends in extending and intensifying work hours while
the OECD (2004: 40-44) has raised questions about the desirability of non-standard andvariable work hours.
Non-standard work hours refer to work schedules that involve being at work at times
outside of the standard daily work schedule. These working-time arrangements offer
increased ﬂexibility to employers to match stafﬁng with production requirements. Whenfreely chosen, they also offer workers greater ﬂexibility to reconcile time spent at workwith other activities. However, “unsocial” work hours can also be a potential source of
conﬂict between job requirements and family life and whether this variability is predictable
or is at the discretion of the worker (OECD, 2004 : 40,43). New Zealand is one of thosecountries where the proportion of males working more than 45 hours per week or lessthan 20 hours have both increased in the 1992-2002 period. For women, those working
more than 45 hours per week has increased but there has been a modest decline in

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 6

26/01/2005 7:15:42 p.m.

Non-Standard Work 9

women working less than 20 hours per week (OECD, 2004: Chart 1.7).
Casual Employment
Casual workers are those workers who are not eligible for the beneﬁts of the standard
worker because their employment has no certainty of on-going employment. For
example, the casual nature of their employment means that that there is no expectationof permanent employment and each period of employment is subject to a separate
contract with an employer. It is not clear how many casual workers there are in New
Zealand because statistics are not collected. In Australia, the Bureau of Statistics deﬁnes
casual employment as those who do not receive paid sick or holiday leave. Those who
fell into this category provided 69 percent of net growth in employees in the 1988-1998
period in Australia (AusStats, 1999), with the bulk being males (+115 percent) comparedwith females (+43 percent). This reinforces another trend in recent decades: males arelosing full-time employment to be replaced by unemployment or underemployment, in
this case as casual employees. (This is borne out by the statistics on men working parttime, especially over the age of 50, although there is generally delayed entry to the labour
market as both males and females invest in post-compulsory education and training).
Research (Mangan, 2000) suggests that similar trends are occurring in New Zealand,
and that there has been a signiﬁcant shift from permanent to casual employment, withmales being particularly affected.
Fixed Term Employment
Fixed term employment refers to those contracts which have a deﬁnite end-point so thatonce they have completed a certain period or a certain task, the employment contract
ends. This type of work has expanded recently, especially with the arrival and use of
temporary help agencies and contract companies. Here, employment is arranged byan intermediary such as a temporary hire company (Cahoney, 1996:31). This company
contracts with another company to provide appropriate workers for a particular activity or
for a speciﬁc period. Such temporary labour via intermediaries has become an importantpart of the personnel strategies of ﬁrms (Kalleberg, 2000) and it has increasingly included
skilled and professional occupations. Again, the extent of this form of employment is
not known in New Zealand because national statistics are not available. However, theOECD (2004: 75-76) identiﬁes New Zealand as an exemplar of a country that has moved,
through the Employment Relations Act (2000), to tighten the regulation of temporary
employment. Austria and New Zealand are seen as extended employment protection
legislation (EPL) to encompass temporary employment situations as opposed to countries
such as Portugal and Spain which have gone in the other direction.

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 7

26/01/2005 7:15:42 p.m.

10 Paul Spoonley

Own Account Self-Employment
Self-employment has always been an important part of working in New Zealand, but it has
grown in importance as ﬁrms have reduced workforces and more people have seen selfemployment as a necessary or preferred option. Own account self-employed refers to
those who are self-employed but who do not have employees. In the 1991 to 2001 period,
the numbers have grown (from 158,700 people to 225,800) and this type of employment
has become a more important factor with 64 percent of the self-employed falling into
this particular category (ie not having any employees). Bururu (1998:63) suggeststhat regulations which make it difﬁcult to hire and ﬁre workers encourage employers tocontract out services to the self-employed (among others) to minimise labour transaction
costs. Non-wage labour costs such as ACC levies, pay roll taxes and health and safetycompliance costs may encourage contracting and self-employment arrangements.
Multiple Job Holders
Sometimes referred to as portfolio workers, these are workers who hold two or morepaid jobs. It is assumed that a reason for multiple jobs has been to generate adequatelevels of income for households, and that work is able to be accommodated around
domestic responsibilities. The proportion of multiple job holders to those in other formsof employment has not changed much in the last ten years in New Zealand, although
the absolute numbers have increased from 64,900 in 1991 to 73,400 in 2001. However,
because of the way in which the statistics are collected, multiple job holders might beunder-represented. Some research (see Baines, Newell and Taylor, 2002; Taylor, Baines
and Newell, 2004) suggests that the actual ﬁgure is more likely to be almost double theofﬁcial national ﬁgure (9.7 percent versus 4.7 percent).
In summary, standard employment (full-time, wages or salaried employees working 3050 hours per week) declined in the 1980s but grew again in the 1990s and still constitutes
more than 40 percent of those of any employment status (or 59 percent of those who arein paid employment). But this has been accompanied by a signiﬁcant percentage growthin non-standard forms of work in the decade 1991-2001, especially among part-time, selfemployed own account and multiple job holders. The lack of available statistics for ﬁxed
term task, contract and third-party employment makes it difﬁcult to know what the growthhas been in these other forms of non-standard work. There is also the impact of theintensiﬁcation of work (growing expectations of work performance) and the extensiﬁcationof hours which has impacted on the nature of both standard and non-standard work(see OECD, 2004:25-26, 37, 42). New Zealand has experienced signiﬁcant employment
growth in the labour market, but two fundamental questions are raised by the natureof this growth: has the distribution of paid employment been equitable and reﬂected
employee choice; and how well has the labour market regulatory and policy framework
adjusted to these diverse employment relations and pathways? The next section raises
some issues in relation to the second of these questions.

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 8

26/01/2005 7:15:42 p.m.

Non-Standard Work 11

Non-Standard Work and Policy Challenges(a)Deﬁning an Employee

Deﬁning who or what is an “employee” has become more problematic given the changing
nature of employment (Benjamin, 2002). An increasing number of employees, especiallythose in non-standard work, engage with paid work in ways that are not necessarily
well-deﬁned or encompassed in labour market policy and law. For example, when
the ERA (2000) was introduced, there was a lot of debate and confusion around theclassiﬁcation of an “employee” as this was redeﬁned in the Act (see Llewellyn, 2000;
Greene, 2000; Management, 2000). One key issue is the basis on which the courts
and industrial tribunals distinguish between employees and the self-employed, andthe ability of existing job classiﬁcations to accommodate non-standard arrangements(Mangan, 2000). In turn, such deﬁnitional issues have implications for contractual rights
and obligations, including the right to refuse work, the obligations on a company toprovide work, and co-employment liabilities. In the USA, the Commission on the Futureof Worker-Management Relations has recommended that a more appropriate deﬁnitionof employees should be adopted, and one that ensures that those who are hired throughintermediaries are covered (Houseman, 1999:5).
In terms of employment relations law in New Zealand (http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/act/
employers.html), an employee is deﬁned as “anyone who has agreed to be employed,
under a contract of service, to work for some form of payment”. This can include wages,salary, commission, and piece rate and covers:
•
•
•
•
•

Homeworkers;
People who have been offered and accepted a job;
Fixed-term and seasonal workers;
Casual and part-time employees; andProbationary and trial employees.

The challenge is in deﬁning and describing temporary employment (Firkin et al., 2002;
2003; Pranschke, 1996). The United Kingdom National Minimum Wage Act 1998 andthe Regulations of the Working Time Directive have used the broader term “worker” in
preference to the more restrictive one of “employee” (Mangan, 2000:147). This includes
all those who do not necessarily have a contract of employment but are in some sort ofwork relationship. Greene (2000: 15), on the other hand, refers to “ﬂexible” forms of labour
such as casual, temporary and ﬁxed-term employees, agency and leased employees,
home-workers, outworkers, contractors, subcontractors and the self-employed. In thisway, non-standard workers are included alongside those who are deﬁned as being in“standard” relationships.

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 9

26/01/2005 7:15:42 p.m.

12 Paul Spoonley

These debates around deﬁnitions are ongoing and affect industrial tribunals, courts,
statisticians and the development of adequate policy frameworks. In New Zealand, there
is no deﬁnition of casual/temporary employment although the OECD (2004) has seen
the ERA (2000) as extending EPL to temporary employment, a move which is unusualin the broader OECD context. This indicates a somewhat confused situation whereby
one aspect of labour regulation does apply to some forms of temporary work but in theabsence of an encompassing deﬁnition and recognition in labour market policy generally.
It might be useful to deﬁne this as “work that has no explicit or implicit promise of continuity”(Stone, 2001:542) or any expectation of a continuing relationship between worker andemployer (Buultjens, 2001). This is the opposite of long-term, stable and permanent
employment (standard work) and includes temporary help agency workers, casual andtemporary employees and those on a ﬁxed-term contract. “Conditional” (duRivage et al.,1998), “precarious” (Tucker, 2002) and “transient” (Carre, 1998: 10) also describe thisway of working.
(b)

Qualifying for Social Protection

One of the most important issues related to the area of legislation and temporary
employment is the traditional arrangement for distributing employee-related beneﬁts
based on continuous service with one employer (Fudge and Vosko, 2001). Yet, assumingthat employment-related beneﬁts should be based on standard forms of employment
has a negative impact on, for example, multiple job-holders, temporary workers and own
account self-employed working for a number of different companies. This is particularly
relevant in New Zealand with the introduction of the Paid Parental Leave Scheme. To
be eligible for this, an employee is required to be in paid employment with a single
employer for 10 or more hours per week for a year before the due birth or adoption
date. Following a review of the scheme last year, the Bill is before a select committee toextend eligibility to employees who have worked for the same employer for six months(http:www.beehive.govt.nz). This option still clearly discriminates against some 70,000
self-employed women and their partners who will not qualify (Ross, 2002), as well as
all those working in contingent jobs on a casual basis for multiple employers (see also
McLaren et al, 2004).
With the growth in new employment relations and the erosion of the industrial model ofmass standard employment, risk is being shifted from employers to employees and they
are required to become more entrepreneurial in terms of protecting their security andincreasing labour market options (Klare, 2002:16). Consequently, employees need tomake greater investments in human capital as employer-provided beneﬁts are reduced.
This is especially true for various forms of knowledge workers, but it is also an issue
for contingent and involuntary non-standard workers. The failure to adequately invest in
human capital development constitutes one of the greatest barriers to labour mobility andchoice (OECD, 2004). Moreover, as insecure jobs grow and underemployment increases,
temporary workers do not have the same protection from labour law. Employers are

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 10

26/01/2005 7:15:42 p.m.

Non-Standard Work 13

combining a “highly” attached core workforce with a growing number of peripheral, lowattachment employees (Klare, 2002:17). In the accommodation industry, Whatman et al.
(1999) found that increasingly staff were employed casually and that contract provisions
were sometimes “bent or ignored”.
Quite often, of course, this sort of work, and the people who are involved in it, aretreated as a separate population of employees, with different jobs, different pay structures, little overlap and no chance of promotion (Wiley, 1990 in Mangan, 2000).
In these conditions, the role of social protection and who qualiﬁes for it becomesproblematic. Employment protection (see OECD, 2004) still encompasses some forms
of non-standard work (for example, coverage of part-time and casual employees), but it
is rather more complicated for other categories such as homeworkers or independent
contractors (Rossiter and McMorran, 2003). However, access to social protection suchas unemployment beneﬁt tends to present difﬁculties for the low-income temporary/parttime work force as they struggle to meet minimum requirements to qualify for various
social beneﬁts.
(c)Intermediaries in Employment Relations

As the use of temporary agency and contract-company workers increases, the issues
around co-employment are becoming more problematic. For employers there are many
beneﬁts to using temporary help agencies for stafﬁng needs. This system allows fora consistent supply of workers. Employers are not responsible for paying wages andbeneﬁts and the hiring and ﬁring of employees is simpliﬁed. Workers are selected, tested
and placed by the agency and their subsequent welfare is either a responsibility of thetemporary help agency or is unclear. In Canada, for example, at a regulatory level,
the triangular relationship between the agency, worker and contracted employer, canbe unclear because of the absence of policy and labour laws in this area. Moreover,temporary workers earn lower wages and receive fewer beneﬁts because of the agency
charges and the low levels of social protection (Fudge and Vosko, 2001). Various
countries in Europe have developed policies to regulate temporary help work (Germany,
France, Spain, Norway, Finland are some examples). Worker protection is mandated
and the responsibility for workers is allocated to the agency and client ﬁrm (Fudge andVosko, 2001).
In New Zealand, when employees are employed by a labour hire company, they aretechnically de facto employees of the company that beneﬁts from their work (Anderson,2001). In many instances, the employer is not the one making the employment decisions,thus leaving loopholes “for employer avoidance of good faith obligations” (Anderson,
2001:3). In co-employment situations, employees might have no direct relations with theclient companies. Workers are employed almost like permanent employees but should
the client company end the relationship with the contracting company, employment can be

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 11

26/01/2005 7:15:42 p.m.

14 Paul Spoonley

terminated without redundancy. This does suggest that those employed by intermediaries
are, or can be, in a somewhat ambiguous employment situation, with complicated linesof responsibility.
(d)Statistics on Non-Standard Work

“Perhaps the most compelling policy concern regarding temporary employment is theneed for a systematic and sustained data series…” (Carre, 1992:76). Very little is known
about the incidence of some forms of non-standard work arrangements in New Zealand.
This omission makes it difﬁcult to determine the extent of these forms of non-standard
work (ﬁxed term/task, contractor or third party employment). Furthermore, informationis required on the extent to which workers choose these employment arrangements as
opposed to those for whom it is a forced or involuntary engagement and the least preferred
employment option. Is Tilly (1996) correct in suggesting that unemployment is masked
by growing under-employment, especially in terms of temporary arrangements? Much of
the literature on non-standard work refers to the need for improved data collection (forexample, Carre, 1992; Carroll, 1999; Firkin et al., 2003; McLaren et al, 2004; Tucker,
2002).
When the ECA was introduced in 1991, many commentators predicted that the Act would
have a different impact on different sectors of the population with the outcome of growing
inequality. Women, Maori, Paciﬁc peoples and the young would become increasingly
marginalized in low paid and casualised occupations (McLaughlin and Rasmussen, 1998).
Yet one of the problems in evaluating the impact of the ECA (or the ERA subsequently) is
the lack of information about the effects that legislation has had on employees, especiallygiven the limited evidence that there has been on various forms of non-standard work.
(e)

Health and Safety

Ross Wilson, President of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (2002) sees thegrowth of precarious employment, together with the increase in working hours andthe intensity of work for some sections of the workforce, as creating a division in thelabour market between “work rich” and “work poor”. One of the markers between the“work rich” and “work poor” is the coverage and care in terms of employment health andsafety requirements. In a recent review of 93 research studies covering 11 countries,
the growth of non-standard work arrangements have had adverse effects on health andsafety. Of the 93 studies, 70 found that precarious employment was associated with thisdeterioration (Wilson, 2002). Experiences in New Zealand are similar to these broadﬁndings. Futhermore, the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) regulatory framework
is designed to deal predominantly with permanent employees (Wilson, 2002).
One example is when casual employees have worked for several companies in one
week, the record of employment becomes problemmatic for ACC payouts in terms of
calculating what constitutes 80 percent of wages. Findings from the study into workers

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 12

26/01/2005 7:15:42 p.m.

Non-Standard Work 15

employed by temporary agencies (Alach and Inkson, 2003; Inkson and Alach, 2004) alsosuggests that there are concerns around health and safety issues for temporary agency
workers. The question of whether or not temporary workers are more likely to put theirhealth at risk by being unwilling to take sick days or go on doctor’s visits for fear of being
perceived as “unreliable” and denied access to future work. Policy makers may need toconsider how to best address the health and safety needs of temporary workers who may
be employed by several recruitment agencies over time and across a range of different
work-sites.
(f)Wage Inequality“If the goal is to reduce, rather than exacerbate labour market dualism based upon an
exclusive, rather than an inclusive, model of employment, the principal of parity is crucial
in determining access to work-related beneﬁts” (Herzenberg et al., 1998 in Fudge etal., 2001). Consequently, it is essential to evaluate the appropriateness and adequacyof labour law, legislation and policy in relation to employment outcomes and situations,and to how equitable these are (Fudge et al., 2001: 347). Attention needs to be paid tothe plurality of employment relationships and equal pay for work of equal value for those
temporary workers engaged in the same work as full-time permanent workers.
According to the OECD Employment Outlook (2002), the aggregate evidence inEuropean countries suggests that the average wage of temporary workers lags behind
their permanent counterparts – by between 17 percent in Germany and 47 percent in
Spain. To avoid such discrepancies, the USA House of Representatives has introduced
the “Part-Time and Temporary Worker Protection Act” to make non-mandated beneﬁts
available to ﬂexible employees with the effect that core worker beneﬁts should beoffered to contingent workers on a pro-rata basis (O’Brien Hylton, 1996). However,there is evidence of growing disparities, especially for “workless households” (Gregg
and Wadsworth, 2003) and the “work-poor” and those at minimum wage levels andsectors. During the period of reform, the level of wage inequality grew substantially in
New Zealand. It was one of a group of countries which experienced a signiﬁcant increasein the levels of inequality (90-10 percent wage gap). Between 1984 and 1994, somecountries (eg Australia) saw modest increases in the levels of wage inequality for maleworkers (174.6 to 194.5, an increase of 19.9) while others saw a decline (Canada, 301.5
to 278.1, Germany 138.7 to 124.8). New Zealand saw the level of inequality rise from171.8 to 215.8 (+44.0) along with the UK (177.3 to 222.3, +44.9) and the USA (266.9 to326.3, +59.4 – see Borjas, 2005: 301).
In Australia, it has recently been suggested that a four-tier employment hierarchy has
emerged, involving :1. A growing minority of highly skilled workers with secure full-time jobs (who arelikely to sustain employment even if they change jobs frequently or are engaged

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 13

26/01/2005 7:15:43 p.m.

16 Paul Spoonley

on a temporary basis);
2. A slender, and diminishing, majority of workers with middle-order skills in fulltime jobs (for example trades and advanced clerical workers), whose jobs arevulnerable in economic down-turns;
3. A growing minority of low-skilled workers (the majority of whom are women or
young people) who are increasingly segregated into more precarious or part-timejobs, and face the prospect of frequent bouts of unemployment;
4. People who rely mainly on social security payments for their income for prolonged
periods (who are mainly drawn from the above group of low-skilled workers, andoften have limited experience in secure full-time employment) (Australian Councilof Social Services, 2003: 113).
Given evidence of growing wage inequality (Borjas, 2005) and low levels of wage
growth returns (OECD, 2004) for New Zealand, wage inequality and the returns on
labour constitute important policy issues, especially if broader social policy goals suchas sustainable employment, social cohesion and education/training investments are
considered. The fragmented labour market experiences identiﬁed by the AustralianCouncil for Social Services for that country represent signiﬁcant labour market (andbroad social policy) challenges that are just as likely to be relevant for this side of the
Tasman, with important ethnic and gender dimensions.
(g)Working Time Flexibility

The growth in various forms of non-standard work reﬂects the importance of new ﬂexible
work relations, both for employers and for some employees. Accordingly, the OECD
(2004) identiﬁes New Zealand as one of a small group of countries (others include Japan,
Korea, Australia and Canada; see OECD, 2004:25-26) where the number of hours
worked per capita are high, and where they have risen in the last decade. New Zealandis one of the few countries where the usual weekly hours worked per employee hasgone up (see Table 1.6, OECD, 2004: 37). There has been with a growth between 1992
and 2002 of men who worked more than 45 hours per week (nearly 40 percent in 2002)
with a smaller increase for women (OECD, 2004: 42). Inevitably, these developments
have raised questions about work-life balance and whether a “long hours work culture” isdeveloping in New Zealand.
One complication for assessing policy choices is that longer and more ﬂexible working
hours may be a mixed blessing from the perspective of the well-being of workers andtheir families. The ﬂip-side of the growth advantage associated with an increase of percapita hours of work is the “time crunch” faced by working parents and the possibility
that a “long hours” culture is undermining the work-life balance of workers in certain
professions. Similarly, working hours ﬂexibility may be detrimental to family life to theextent that it takes the form of non-standard work schedules dictated by the just-in-time
stafﬁng for the “24/7” economy, rather than an increased choice for workers to select the

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 14

26/01/2005 7:15:43 p.m.

Non-Standard Work 17

work schedule that best reconciles their work with their family (OECD, 2004:25).
(h)

Job Tenure

Although most temporary workers remain in their jobs for less than a year, it is becoming
increasingly possible for temporary workers to be employed on longer contracts or accrue
several contract renewals, thus occupying temporary jobs lasting for years but without
the beneﬁts they might have received had they been permanently employed. Evidencein Europe indicates that the majority of the temporary workers have considerable
continuity of employment (OECD, 2002). In Australia, Wooden (1999, cited in Watts,
2001) estimates that the average job tenure for casual (adult) employees is almost 4
years. This was borne out by an interview locally with the Waterfront Union where severalof their members have been working in this precarious way for many years (McLaren etal, 2004).
Other industries employ people both directly and indirectly through temporary help
agencies. They are generally employed for a ﬁxed-term period and contracts arerepeatedly renewed. To bypass employing these workers permanently, they are laid
off for a few days before being re-employed. Many temporary workers are employedalmost continually but are never offered permanent positions. However, certain countries
legislate against unlimited renewals of the temporary employment contract. For example,
in France, temporary contracts are limited to 18 months duration with only one renewal
permitted and in Hungary, the total duration of contracts cannot exceed 5 years (OECD,
2002: 176).
The issue of ongoing “long-term” casual employment is part of the debate into temporary
employment in Australia and casuals are distinguished (roughly) in terms of tenure andhours into “short-term” casuals and those casuals who resemble permanent employees
and can be termed “long-term” casuals or “permanent”, regular or ongoing casuals(Campbell and Burgess, 2001:89). In the accommodation, winemaking and brewing
industries in New Zealand, researchers (Whatman et al., 1999) encountered deﬁnitionsof casual workers as “casual-casuals”, “regular-casuals” and “permanent-casuals”. This
indicates that not only is there an issue in terms of deﬁning tenure and casualisation but
also that these deﬁnitional problems have implications for labour law and policy.

Conclusion
Standard work became the norm during the twentieth century, both because of its
dominance in labour markets in countries such as New Zealand and because it was thebasis of state-managed welfare and labour market policy frameworks. Self-employment
declined throughout the century, there was a migration from primary sectors to the mass
employment of the industrial sector and because of the growth of state-funded service
sectors such as health and education, the state came to be a major employer (McCartin

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 15

26/01/2005 7:15:43 p.m.

18 Paul Spoonley

and Schellenberg, 1999:3) along with large corporations:…the model of “standard core” employment has served as the primary reference point
for our understanding of paid work, through much of the post-war period and has
characterized employment in many industries (McCartin and Schellenberg, 1999:2).
According to Kalleberg (2000), the efﬁciencies associated with work in standard,hierarchical employment relations and the nature of internal labour markets in the postWorld War II period may have been an historical irregularity, to be altered by the nonstandard employment relations which are now beginning to prevail. The growth of nonstandard work, along with other contemporary social and economic changes, has givenrise to some interesting questions about the signiﬁcance in the shift of employment inparticular and society in general. The ESRC “Future of Work” programme has asked thefollowing :Are the claims of paradigmatic shifts in work organisations and social practices
securely grounded or not?
The author then goes on to suggest that:…contemporary debate has been excessively inﬂuenced by the work and employment
patterns which became prevalent in the speciﬁc conditions of the post-war period, butwhich historically may come to be seen as exceptional. Is the growth of contingent
labour indicative of structural change?
The challenge for policy makers and employers in New Zealand is how best to reconsider
employment policies in order to reﬂect the changing proﬁle and nature of employment
arrangements. “How to balance the advantages of ﬂexibility with the desire for certainty
is part of the ongoing dynamic of managing capitalism so that it works, as best as
possible, for all” (ABL, 2001:84). What the myriad of temporary contracts of employment
demonstrates is that there can be a shortfall in rights, beneﬁts and forms of protection
given that these tend to be predicated on addressing the needs of those involved instandard forms of employment.
Perhaps it is time that the “paradigm for the employment relationship” (Marshall, 1992:
2) should no longer be so focussed on the standard employment contract but rather
encompass, more adequately, the diverse employment relationships that exist today. It
is no longer possible to identify the numerous relationships as being homogenous, andlabelled as “standard”, “non-standard” or “atypical”. This diversity should be given more
prominence in any employment- related legislation. Whereas, in the past, “non-standard”
work was generally reserved for genuine “non-standard” needs, this is increasingly not
the case with conditional employment being a permanent state, rather than the exception,
for many.

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 16

26/01/2005 7:15:43 p.m.

Non-Standard Work 19

The issues to be considered and preserved are ﬂexibility, equity, representation andequal opportunities. Flexibility need not preclude so called “decent” work (see Spoonley,de Bruin and Firkin, 2002). In considering policy, groups should not be privileged or
singled out (see Tucker, 2002). Instead, policy should reﬂect the changing nature ofsociety and the world of work. Where non-standard work might present some workers
with certain freedoms, it certainly exposes others to greater risk. Tucker (2002) suggeststhat because some part-time and self-employed individuals choose this way of working,that is not in itself a cause for policy concerns. In the extensive research carried out by
the Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme with individuals in many forms of
non-standard work, we have found that the growth of conditional working arrangements
require innovative and more inclusive policy responses. Furthermore, it is necessary todevelop more ﬂexibility for other workers (Firkin et al., 2002, Alach et al., 2003, Firkin etal., 2003, Perera, 2003; McLaren et al, 2004).
If policy-makers are to adequately address these developments, they will require
more nuanced images of how people experience contingent work and how contingent
labour markets are actually structured (Kunda et al., 2002:258).

References
Alach, P. and Inkson, K. (2003), Temping: A Study of Temporary Ofﬁce Workers in Auckland. Research Report No. 2,
Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme, Albany and Palmerston North: Massey University.
.
Anderson, G. (2001), ‘The Individual and the Employment Relations Act’, The New Zealand Journal of Industrial
Relations, 26(1): 103-118.
Association of University Staff of New Zealand, Draft Policy Statement on Casualisation. Retrieved from http://www.aus.
ac.nz/conference/casualisationpolicy2002.htm.
Australian Bulletin of Labour (ABL) (June 2001), Special Issue on Casual Employment, 27(2): 85-108, June 2001.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1999), Casual Employment. Retrieved from http://www.abs.govt.au.
Australian Council of Social Services (2003), The Bare Necessities. Poverty and Deprivation in Australia Today, AustralianCouncil of Social Services.
Bagnall, D. (1999), The Jobs Letter, No. 96, 5 March, 1999.
Baines, J., Newell, J. and Taylor, N. (2002), ‘Multiple Job Holding in New Zealand – A Statistical Proﬁle’. Labour,
Employment and Work in New Zealand – Proceedings of the Tenth Conference, 21-22 November, 2002. Victoria
University of Wellington.
Barker, K. and Christensen, K. (eds.) (1998), Contingent Work: American Employment Relations in Transition. Ithacaand London: ILR Press.
Benjamin, P. (2002), ‘Who Needs Labour Law?’ in J. Conaghan, R.M. Fischl and K. Klare (eds.), Labour Law in an Era
of Globalisation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Borjas, G.T. (2005), Labour Economics (Third Edition), Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Bosworth, D., Dawkins, P. and Stromback, T. (1996), The Economics of the Labour Market, London: Longman.
Bururu, R. (1998), Self-Employment in New Zealand, Labour, Employment and Work in New Zealand – Proceedings ofthe Eighth Conference, 26-27 November, 1998. Victoria University of Wellington.
Buultjens, J. (2001), ‘Casual Employment: A Problematic Strategy for the Registered Club Sector in New South Wales’,
The Journal of Industrial Relations, 43(4): 470 –477.

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 17

26/01/2005 7:15:43 p.m.

20 Paul Spoonley

Cahoney, S. (1996), Workers in Alternative Employment Arrangements, Monthly Labor Review, 119(10): 31-45.
Campbell, I. (1999), The Jobs Letter, No. 96, 5 March, 1999.
Campbell, I. and Burgess, J. (2001), ‘A New Estimate of Casual Employment?’, Australian Bulletin of Labour, 27(2):85-108.
Cameron, A. and Brosnan, P. (1998), ‘Non-Standard Working-Time Arrangements in Australia and New Zealand’,
International Journal of Manpower, 19 (4): 234-250.
Carre, F.J. (1992), ‘Temporary Employment in the Eighties’, V.L. duRivage (ed.), New Policies for the Part-time andContingent Workforce, Economic Policy Institute, London: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
Carre, F. J. (1998), Temporary and Contracted Work in the United States: Policy Issues and Innovative Responses,
Gender Inequality: the Role of Policy. Conference organised jointly by the OECD, Ministry of Children and Family Affairs
and the Ministry of Labour and Government Administration, Norway, Oslo, 12 and 13 October, 1998.
Carroll, N. (1999), Non-Standard Employment: A Note on Levels, Trends, and Some Implications, Labour Market Bulletin,101-121.
Conaghan, J., Fischl. R. M. and Klare, K. (eds.) (2002), Labour Law in an Era of Globalisation. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Crawford, A., Harbridge, R. and Walsh, P. (2000), ‘Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual Review for
1999’. New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations, 25(3): 291-198.
Deeks, J. and Rasmussen, E. (2002), Employment Relations in New Zealand. Auckland: Pearson Education.
Department of Labour (2003), Employment Status, Fact Sheet. Retrieved from www.ers.dol.govt.nz.
duRivage, V.L. (1992), ‘New Policies for the Part-Time and Contingent Workforce’, in V.L. duRivage, (ed.) (1992) New
Policies for the Part-time and Contingent Workforce. Economic Policy Institute, London: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
duRivage, V. L., Carre, F. J. and Tilly, C. (1998), ‘Making Labor Law Work for Part-Time and Contingent Workers’, in K.
Barker and K. Christensen (eds.), Contingent Work: American Employment Relations in Transition. Ithaca and London:
ILR Press.
Dyson, R. (1st July 2004), Paid Parental Leave Payments to Increase. Retrieved from http://www.beehive.govt.nz/
ViewDocument.cfm?DocumentID=20194
EEO Trust (2001), Work and Life Special Bulletin details the Paid Parental Leave Scheme announced November 2001.
Retrieved from http://www.womenz.org.nz.
ERS: ‘What employment relations law means for employers in New Zealand’. Retrieved from http:www.ers.dol.govt.
nz/act/employers.html.
Firkin, P. (2003), Midwifery as Non-Standard Work – Rebirth of a Profession. Research Report No. 1, Labour Market
Dynamics Research Programme, Albany and Palmerston North: Massey University.
Firkin, P., McLaren, E., Spoonley, P., de Bruin, A., Dupuis, A., Perera, H., Cremer, R. and Overton J. (2002), Non-Standard
Work: Alternative Arrangements Amongst Knowledge Workers. Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme, Albany
and Palmerston North: Massey University.
Firkin, P., McLaren, E., Spoonley, P., de Bruin, A., Dupuis, A., Perera, H. and Inkson, K. (2003), Non-Standard Work:
Alternative Working Arrangements amongst Knowledge Workers in Hawkes Bay and Auckland: An Expanded Analysis
Across Two Regions. Research Report No. 4, Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme, Albany and Palmerston
North: Massey University.
Firkin, P., McLaren, E., Spoonley, P., de Bruin, A., Dupuis, A. and Perera, H. (2003), Non-Standard Work: Alternative
Working Arrangements Among Knowledge Workers. An Expanded Analysis Across Two Regions: Auckland and Hawkes
Bay. Research Report 2003/4 – Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme, Albany and Palmerston North: Massey
University.
Fudge, J. and Vosko, L. (2001), ‘By Whose Standards? Reregulating the Canadian Labor Market’, Economic andIndustrial Democracy, 22(3): 327-356.
Greene, B. (2000), “Independent Contractors: an Attractive Option?”, New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations, 25(2):183-204.
Gregg, P. and Wadsworth, J. (2003), “Workless Households and the Recovery” in R. Dickens, P. Gregg and J. Wadsworth(eds.), The Labour Market Under New Labour. The State of Working Britain, Houndsmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave.

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 18

26/01/2005 7:15:43 p.m.

Non-Standard Work 21

Houseman, S. N. (1999), Flexible Stafﬁng Arrangements. Retrieved 6 July 2001, from www.dol.govt/asp/public/
futurework/conference/stafﬁng/stafﬁng_toc.htm
Hutton, W. (1995), The State We’re In. London: Cape.
Inkson, K. (2004), “New Patterns of Career”, in P.Spoonley, A. Dupuis and A. de Bruin (eds.), Work and Working in
Twenty-First Century New Zealand, Palmerston North: Dunmore Press.
Inkson, K. and Alach, P. (2004), “Temporary Work: “Just a Temp”, in P.Spoonley, A. Dupuis and A. de Bruin (eds.), Workand Working in Twenty-First Century New Zealand, Palmerston North: Dunmore Press.
International Labour Organisation (1998), A Global Agenda for Employment. ILO, Geneva.
International Labour Review (2002), ‘Towards a Policy Framework for Decent Work’, Spring-Summer 2002.
Kalleberg, A.L. (2000), Non-Standard Employment Relations: Part-time, Temporary and Contract Work. Annual Reviews,
Sociology. Retrieved 14 January 2002, from http://soc.annualreviews.org/cgi/content/full/26/1/341
Klare, K. (2002), ‘Horizons of Transformative Labour Law’, in J. Conaghan, R.M. Fischl and K. Klare (eds.), Labour Law
in an Era of Globalisation, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kunda, G., Barley, S. R. and Evans, J. (2002), ‘Why do Contractors Contract? The Experience of Highly Skilled Technical
Professionals in a Contingent Labour Market’, Industrial and Labour Relations Review, 55(2): 234-261.
Lane, J., Mikelson, K. S., Sharkey, P.T. and Wissoker, D. (2001), Low-Income and Low-Skilled Workers’ Involvement in
Non-Standard Employment, The Urban Institute: Washington.
Llewellyn, L. (2000), ‘Government Opens Can of Worms with Independent Contractors Law’, The Independent, 3 May: 4
retrieved from http://tiki.knowledge-basket.co.nz.
Lowe, G. S. (2002), ‘Employment Relationships as the Centrepiece of a New Labour Policy Paradigm’, Canadian Public
Policy, 28(1): 93-104.
Management (June 2000), Challenges for Outsourcing. Retrieved 31 July 2001, from http://tiki.knowledge-basket.
co.nz.
Mangan, J. (2000), Workers Without Traditional Employment, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Marshall, A. with Verdera, F. and del Costello, I. Y. (1992), Circumventing Labour Protection: Non-Standard Employment
in Argentina and Peru. Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies.
McMartin, M. and Schellenberg, G. (1999), The Future of Work: Non-standard Employment in the Public Service ofCanada. Retrieved 18 August 2001, from www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/research/demographics/nonstandard_e.htm.
McLaren, E., Firkin, P., Spoonley, P., de Bruin, A., Dupuis, A. and Inkson, K. (2004), At the Margins: Contingency,
Precariousness and Non-Standard Work. Research Report 2004/01 – Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme,
Albany and Palmerston North: Massey University.
McLaughlin, C. and Rasmussen, E. (1998), ‘“Freedom of Choice” and “ﬂexibility” in the Retail Sector?’, International
Journal of Manpower, 19(4).
Mold, F. (2003), ‘Immigration takes a Look at Forestry Course after Cheap Labour Claim’, New Zealand Herald, 2ndApril, 2003.
Murtough, G. and Waite, M. (2001), ‘A New Estimate of Casual Employment? Reply’ in Australian Bulletin of Labour(ABL), Special Issue on Casual Employment, 27(2): 85-108.
NewsTalkZB, Friday, 23rd August, 2002.
O’Brien Hylton, M. (1996), ‘Legal and Policy Implications of the Flexible Employment Relationship’, Journal of Labor
Research, XVII(4): .
OECD Employment Outlook (2002), July 2002, France.
OECD Employment Outlook (2004), Paris: OECD.
Owens, R. J. (2001), ‘”The Long-Term or Permanent Casual – an Oxymoron or a “Well Enough Understood Australianism”
in the Law’, Australian Bulletin of Labour, 27(2): 85-108.
Perera, H. (2003), Non-Standard Work in the Accounting Profession in New Zealand: Some Preliminary Evidence.
Research Report No. 3, Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme, Albany and Palmerston North: Massey
University.

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 19

26/01/2005 7:15:43 p.m.

22 Paul Spoonley

Pranschke, S. C. (1996), ‘Contingent Workers’, Employee Beneﬁts Journal, 21(3): .
Richardson, S. and Miller-Lewis, L. (2002), Low Wage Jobs and Pathways to Better Outcomes. New Zealand Treasury
Working Paper 02/29. December, 2002.
Ross, J. (2002), Parental
asp?SoapboxID=57.

Leave

Punishes

Home

Mums.

Retrievedfrom

http://www.sm.org.nz/soapbox.

Rossiter, G. and McMorran, F. (2003), The Law and Alternative Working Arrangements, Working Paper No.10, Albany
and Palmerston North: Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme.
Spalter-Roth, R. and Hartmann, H. (1998), ‘Gauging the Consequences of Gender Relations, Pay Equity and the Public
Purse’, in K. Barker and K. Christensen (eds.) (1998) Contingent Work: American Employment Relations in Transition.
Ithaca and London: ILR Press.
Spoonley, P., de Bruin, A. and Firkin, P. (2002), ‘Managing Non-Standard Work Arrangements: Choices and Constraints’,
Journal of Sociology, 38(4): 425-441.
Stone, K. V. W. (2001), ‘The New Psychological Contract: Implications of the Changing Workplace for Labour and
Employment Law’, UCLA Law Review, 48(3): 519-661.
Taylor, N., Baines, J. and Newell, J. (2004), “Multiple Job Holding” in P. Spoonley, A. Dupius and A. de Bruin (eds.), Workand Working in Twenty-First Century New Zealand, Palmerston North: Dunmore Press.
Taylor, R. (1998), “Casual Can Mean Convenient”, New Zealand Herald, 26 April: A14
The Jobs Letter, No. 96, 5th March, 1999.
Tilly, C. (1992), ‘Short Hours, Short Shrift: The Causes and Consequences of Part-time Employment’ in V.L. duRivage,(ed.) (1992) New Policies for the Part-time and Contingent Workforce, Economic Policy Institute, London: M.E. Sharpe,
Inc.
Tilly, C. (1996), Half a Job. Temple University Press: Philadelphia.
Tritt, P. (2000), ‘Challenges for Outsourcing’, Management, June 2000:14.
Tucker, D. (2002), Precarious Non-Standard Employment – A Review of Literature, Labour Market Policy Group,
Department of Labour, Wellington.
Watts, A. G. (2000), ‘The New Career and Public Policy’, in A. Collin and R. A. Young (eds.) The Future of Career.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Watts, R. (2001), ‘The ACTU”s Response to the Growth in Long-Term Casual Employment in Australia’, Australian
Bulletin of Labour, 27(2): 85-108.
Whatman, R., Harvey, O. and Hill, R. (1999), The Effect of Employment Regulation - Case Study Research in the
Accommodation, Winemaking and Brewing Industries. Labour Market Policy Group Occasional Paper 1999/4, December,
1999.
Wilson, R. (2002), ‘Safety in the Emerging Labour Market – a Union Perspective’, Paper presented at Elsinore, Denmark
Inaugural Conference of the International Network on the Prevention of Accidents and Trauma at Work. 3-6 September
2002.

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 20

26/01/2005 7:15:43 p.m.

Non-Standard Work 23

Appendix One: Deﬁnitions of Temporary Employment

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 21

26/01/2005 7:15:44 p.m.

24 Paul Spoonley

Source: OECD Employment Outlook, July 2002: 172-173

2 Spoonley 26 Jan 05.indd 22

26/01/2005 7:15:44 p.m.

Temporary Agency Work in Australia and New Zealand 25

Temporary Agency Work in Australia and
New Zealand: Out of Sight and Outside theRegulatory Net
JOHN BURGESS*, ERLING RASMUSSEN ** & JULIA CONNELL***

Abstract
Temporary agency work is an enigma – it is part of the romance of self-employment,
ﬂexibility and freedom, and it is also part of a process that undermines employment
conditions, collectivism and rights. It is linked to new work and to the new economy, yet
it is also linked to traditional areas of temping, such as seasonal work and replacement
work. While there has been an extensive debate over the regulation of temporary agency
employment in Europe, as well as regulatory proposals and adjustments, the situation isdifferent in Australia and New Zealand: there has been limited debate, comprehensive
research has been absent and temporary agency work largely remains outside of theregulatory framework governing employment. We outline recent trends in agency work
– its extent, what drives its growth and the diverse experiences of agency workers. In
particular, we underline the limited regulation associated with the Australasian model ofagency employment.

Introduction: Temporary Agency Work, Complex and Confusing
Temporary agency working involves a triangular arrangement in which a TWA (temporary
work agency) hires a worker for the purpose of placing him or her at the disposal of a third
party, the user enterprise, for a temporary assignment (Bronstein, 1991: 292). Whereas
temporary workers were once used primarily to ﬁll in for sick or vacationing permanent
employees, they are now frequently employed on an ongoing basis and are an essential
component of the labour use process for many public and private business enterprises.
Temporary agency work can be placed within the context of contingent or nonstandard work. There is also a need to distinguish between temporary agency workthat involves a triangular relationship between the worker, the agency and the user ﬁrm,
and temporary employment that involves a short-time direct hire of the worker by theemploying organisation. The OECD (1996:7) notes that deﬁnitions of temporary work
differ across countries according to relevant systems of employment regulation. There* John Burgess is Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
** Erling Rasmussen is Senior Lecturer, The University of Auckland.
*** Julia Connell is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Business at the Univeristy of Newcastle, New South
Wales, Australia.

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 1

26/01/2005 8:01:35 p.m.

26 John Burgess, Erling Rasmussen and Julia Connell

are distinctive working arrangements that can be regarded as being temporary. In thiscontext temporary agency employment is a component of the broader classiﬁcation of
temporary work. Depending on national systems of regulation, a temporary worker may
be an employee or may include the self-employed. That is, the legal status of employee
does not necessarily preclude temporary employment arrangements and this is thecase for employment in some industries such as housing and construction. The overriding characteristics of temporary agency employment are that the job is for limited
duration (that is, it is insecure); the employment relationship involves three parties; andcontemporaneous employment engagements (multiple job holding) may be associatedwith such employment.
According to Storrie (2002), temporary agency working is not included in the employment
typology in many EU countries and many national authorities responsible for gatheringlabour market statistics have yet to include it in their national surveys. For example,
retirees may be on the books of temp agencies and prepared to carry out the occasional
short-term engagement since they possess specialist skills. The unemployed may sign
on with temp agencies in order to obtain work experience, training and job placement
under the umbrella of the Jobs Network in Australia. Indeed, in Australia it is the provisionof labour services to the unemployed that has provided an indirect boost to TWAs. Shortterm employment practices associated with labour hire may also be associated withclandestine activities such as the employment of illegal immigrants and, as such, there
will be a degree of under reporting of total employment in the sector. The contracting
organisation may itself be an intermediary, so the employment relationship can be further
removed through subsequent sub-contracting. Multiple employer and multiple contracting
arrangements serve to further complicate the employment relationship, the status of theagency worker and the responsibilities of the parties involved (Rubery et al, 2000). An
individual agency worker may also shift between assignments across several agencies.

Temporary Agency Work in Australia and New ZealandAs with much of the data on temporary agency work there are some serious problems witheven the most basic labour market statistics. However, there appears to be little doubtthat temporary agency work was the most rapidly growing form of atypical employment inmany OECD countries in the 1990s, albeit from a low base. Since 1992 temporary work
doubled in most European Union (EU) member states whereas in Denmark, Spain, Italy
and Sweden numbers increased ﬁve-fold (Storrie, 2002). In real terms this equates tobetween 1.8 and 2.1 million people working for temporary agencies in the EU (1.2 –1.4%of the total number employed). However, CIETT 2000 (cited in Storrie, 2002 put the daily
average ﬁgure of temporary workers in the European Union at 2.2 million workers in 1998
with an average of 6 million persons employed at some time during the year throughtemp agencies.
In Australia, the estimates for temporary agency employment are problematic. It is

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 2

26/01/2005 8:01:35 p.m.

Temporary Agency Work in Australia and New Zealand 27

difﬁcult to obtain reliable estimates through time. The ABS Employment Services Survey(Catalogue 8558.0) indicated that around 280 thousand workers were on-hired in 1999
by businesses providing employment services. Around 30 thousand of the labour hire
workers were apprentices and trainees associated with group training arrangements.
The ABS Forms of Employment Survey 2001 (Catalogue 6359.0) suggests that there
were 162 thousand labour hire workers but that 721 thousand workers obtained theirjobs through agencies and labour hire organisations. It seems that around 12 per centof employees obtained jobs through agencies but that around 2-5 per cent of employees
are agency workers, a minority of whom are paid directly by the agencies.
In New Zealand, recruitment and employment agencies have attracted a fair amountof media attention over the last couple of years. One gets the impression that there
has been a rapid rise in the number of agencies and agency workers. Likewise, theconstant focus on ‘executive leasing’ – particularly in the business newspapers – creates
the impression that this is a growing and rather lucrative market for agencies. These
impressions appear to be exaggerating the extent of agency work. When one starts
looking at the available ﬁgures and trends, it appears that there are relatively few agency
workers. There are no available ﬁgures for how many agency workers there are, how
they ﬂuctuate over time and how much they work during a year. The Recruitment andConsulting Association has estimated that its members would on a normal day ‘employ’around 8,000 temporary employees and 1,500 contractors and the agencies would haveon their books and databases around 32,500 people seeking temporary employment
and 7,200 people seeking contract work (RSCA, 2000: 5). Clearly, these ﬁgures do notinclude all agency workers since many agencies are not a member of the Association.
Still, even if there were more than 19,000 workers in total – twice the ﬁgure provided by
the Association – this would represent just over one per cent of the workforce.
On the other hand, there appears to have been considerable growth in the number ofagencies and agency workers over the last two decades. This has involved a signiﬁcantinternationalisation of agencies with many international agencies appearing in New
Zealand or buying into New Zealand agencies. Additionally, agencies have expanded
their range of services and developed new ‘markets’ in health, education and call centres.
These trends have meant a constant growth pattern, though with some downturns inparticular markets, and there appears to be little doubt that agencies are poised forfurther growth. The only clouds on the horizon are the current Government’s adjustment
to employment legislation which will impact on issues such as occupational safety andhealth, contracting out and employer responsibilities.
The employment status and ‘employment patterns’ of New Zealand agency workers
appear to be rather ﬂuid. Predominantly, agency workers are employees of the agency:‘The temp is legally employed by the agency, which invoices the client organisation forthe hours she has worked, and pays her wages and other associated beneﬁts as agreed.’(Alach and Inkson, 2003: 6). However, there are also many agency workers that have an

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 3

26/01/2005 8:01:36 p.m.

28 John Burgess, Erling Rasmussen and Julia Connell

independent contractor status or oscillate between the two types of employment roles.
Thus, the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association makes a distinction between
temporary employees and contractors: ‘a worker who is either an independent contractor
hired out by the member organisation to a client or an employee of the member placedon assignment with a client. The status of Temporary or Independent Contract worker
is always one selected by the worker and usually follows the type of status they havejust previously experienced and anticipate in the foreseeable future’ (RCSA, 2000: 4).
Additionally, agency workers can be self-employed or an employee at other times when
they are not ‘working’ for an agency. It is also a well-known practice for agency workers toregister with several agencies. This is clearly an attempt to ‘play the market’ and thereby
secure continuous and lucrative employment as agencies are explicit that they do notpromise on-going employment and assignments may be terminated abruptly (Alach,2001; Alach and Inkson, 2002).
In both countries analysis is largely constrained through ignorance of the extent of agency
employment. This is compounded by the restrictive typology of the labour force survey
together with the over-riding characteristic of short-term engagements associated with
the industry. We suspect also that there are many more temp agencies than the ofﬁcial
estimates and the number of workers on the books of temp agencies will exceed thenumber of engagements at any one time. To compound the problems we also suspectthat the degree of multiple job holding is high in the temp agency sector. In 2003 in
Australia there were an estimated 550,000 multiple job holders, equal to 6 per cent of total
employment (ABS Catalogue 6105.0). The very nature of temping will mean that stock
estimates of employment will understate the high degree of turnover associated with thistype of employment arrangement. For example, while temps may constitute less than 3
per cent of total employment they would account for a much higher share of additionaljobs created during the year as a result of the limited duration and high turnover of jobs
– it was suggested at the NSW Labour Hire Taskforce that the average job hire was for
6 weeks (NSW Taskforce, 2000: 24). Traditional labour force stock estimates miss theextensive churning associated with the temp agency sector.

What is Driving Agency Employment?
The temporary work sector is expanding across the OECD. An increasing number ofmultinational TWAs (such as Manpower, Randstat, Kelly and Drake) are developing
an international model of labour brokerage providing labour matching services for job
seekers and job providers. These TWAs provide services for employers that range frompayroll administration to staff appraisal systems. As such, they intermediate between thepurchasers and providers of labour and can also be used to blur regulatory responsibility,
de-unionise workplaces and reduce wage rates (Peck and Theodore, 2001). In part theindustry itself is promoting brokerage and other labour services to employers across all
sectors. Consequently, TWAs offer the ultimate form of labour commodiﬁcation, hiring
strictly on a ‘needs basis’ with no attached obligation or commitment. Such services

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 4

26/01/2005 8:01:36 p.m.

Temporary Agency Work in Australia and New Zealand 29

provide employers with extensive numeric, functional and labour cost ﬂexibility withrespect to the deployment of labour. In some countries, such as Australia, the temp work
industry has been assisted by the closure of the public employment service and theplacement of job brokering and training for the unemployed to tender (Junankar, 2001).
The rationale for hiring temporary workers tends to be the same as many other workplace
initiatives – labour cost savings associated with downsizing, increased global competition,
the introduction of new technology and the need to respond quickly to an ever-changing
marketplace. The rise of the temporary agency sector can be interpreted as one
manifestation of increased ﬂexibility in which the restructuring of internal labour markets
and lower internal labour costs (‘headcount costs’) are associated with organizations
externally shifting recruitment, training and on-costs to the temporary agencies andtemporary workers. Temporary agency employment not only offers ﬂexibility and costsaving potential, it also potentially removes responsibility for the compliance with many
employment regulations such as unfair dismissal, employment insurance, employment
beneﬁts and superannuation entitlements onto the TWA. In this context temping allows for
shifting of the responsibilities and risks associated with direct employer responsibilities.
There have been claims that organisations are shedding permanent jobs and hiring inagency workers (Telstra on Changes, 2003).
There are traditional reasons driving the temp sector, including labour shortages. Thisapplies to the professions including IT, accounting, nursing and teaching. Short-term
assignments are available for those with the requisite skills. For those with family caring
responsibilities, semi-retirees, post-graduate students and those who do not require
the commitment of a full-time and ongoing job, temping can satisfy life-style option andcomplement non-work activities. That is, the demand imperative for more just-in-time
employment arrangements is being matched by the global growth of an industry that canfacilitate this process. As already discussed, this particular employment arrangement
is characterised by ambiguity in terms of employment status and in terms of employer
responsibilities. For some occupations (for example nursing, teachers, IT programmers)
the shortage of trained and available workers is driving the expansion of TWAs, but inmany cases it is the possibility of lower labour costs and further labour ﬂexibility thatis providing employers with the incentive to replace permanent workers with agency
workers. This, in turn, will place pressure on employment security and on the employment
conditions of permanent workers.
The NSW Labour Hire Taskforce reported that 95 per cent of agency workers werecasuals and, as such, they suffer from all the forms of beneﬁt and protection exclusion
attached to casual employment (Campbell and Burgess, 2001). In addition, the union
submissions to the NSW Task force suggested a pattern of persistent under-award pay
and very low rates of unionisation. Their pay rates were often below those of permanent
workers who performed the same job (Hall, 2001). Without a clear designation of employer
responsibility, agency workers are not covered for holidays, sickness or severance.

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 5

26/01/2005 8:01:36 p.m.

30 John Burgess, Erling Rasmussen and Julia Connell

Furthermore, there is an imperative for many temporary workers to maintain continuous
assignments without a break for sickness or holidays, since their non-availability may
mean they are relegated in the queue of available agency workers when assignments
become available (Connell and Burgess, 2001). In between employment assignments
temps are effectively unemployed. Unlike some EU countries, in Australia and New
Zealand, temps are not paid by the agency between engagements. Also of concern (Hall,
2001) is that ambiguous employment arrangements can result in an absence of OH&S
coverage and no insurance cover for rehabilitation and return to work in the case of work
related injuries.
In New Zealand the growth of agencies and agency workers has been driven to somedegree by demand. The radical and comprehensive reforms in the post-1984 period
created larger markets in the central government sector, the newly corporatised andprivatised ﬁrms, local government and in the health sector (Boston et al. 1996; Easton
1997; Spicer et al. 1996). The business cycle – especially the major downturns after
the 1987 share market crash and after the 1996 Asian crisis – prompted private sector
restructuring and further growth in agency work and agencies. On the other hand, newemployment legislation and the turmoil following the 11 September 2001 event led to adownturn in the ‘temp’ market during 2000-2002, with the Auckland market for personnel
and human resource management staff totally drying up for a while. Likewise, the market
for IT specialists has also had signiﬁcant up and downs, though with a constant market
demand for particular skills.
However, across the various ‘temp’ markets there appears to have been a steady growth
pattern regardless of business cycles. This growth has been fuelled by organisational
restructuring, the emphasis on ﬂexibility and lean stafﬁng, as well as the small size ofmany New Zealand organisations. Agencies have themselves, tried to develop theirmarkets through the promotion of agency work as a ﬂexible and interesting option.
There have also been continuous attempts to create closer relationship with employers(obtaining preferred supplier status) and becoming ‘strategic partners’ with their clientcompanies. This has happened to some degree in banking, local government, law ﬁrms
and hospitals where the ‘preferred supplier status’ has gone far in some cases and there
are many smaller ﬁrms where agencies provide extensive consultative and advisory
services (particular when there is no dedicated human resource management staff). Thisis clearly an area where agencies see further growth opportunities and in particular, theywork hard to increase their ability to recruit and develop high quality staff in professional
services (accounting, nursing, secretarial and administrative work).

Agency Workers: Flexibility, Independence and Choice?
To the industry temping offers lifestyle and workplace choices, allows a high degreeof independence and leads to varied and interesting work experiences (Aley, 1995).
For some workers these attributes are appealing, and some workers with skills in high

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 6

26/01/2005 8:01:36 p.m.

Temporary Agency Work in Australia and New Zealand 31

demand can exercise control over when they work and for whom they work. While theindustry promotes an image of choice, new economy jobs and “entrepreneurial” careers,
the bulk of jobs are low paid and semi-skilled and therefore place most temporary
agency workers in a cycle of insecure and short-term employment, with very low andunpredictable earnings. The ACTU submission to the NSW Labour Hire Task Force(2000: 23) suggested that 54 per cent of labour hire workers were female and employed
predominantly as ‘advanced’ clerical workers in the business and property services, andﬁnance and insurance sectors. The average duration of labour hire was six weeks, witha quarter of workers estimated to have been on labour hire contracts for more than two
years.
In Australia the casual employment arrangements associated with temping means thatmany temps are excluded from training programs and career path progression (Connell
and Burgess, 2001). Hall (2001) reporting on a survey from the Australian Centre forIndustrial Relations, Research and Training suggests that temporary agency workers
receive less training than those working alongside them in permanent positions.
In New Zealand, the lack of obligation to provide on-going employment has often led toconcerns over exploitation and insecurity of agency workers. This has some foundation
since the agency workers are often not entitled to certain employment beneﬁts (forexample, paid parental leave demands a certain level and length of employment witha particular employer) and they will not beneﬁt from the recent expansion of legislative
support for collective bargaining (Deeks and Rasmussen 2002). In fact, their employability
is often increased for exactly this reason as employers try to circumvent the costs
associated with standard employment. A strong bifurcation amongst agency workers
and generally amongst self-employed has also been found (Dept. of Labour 1999: 22).
Besides the high-paid, sought after ‘leased executive’, specialist or temp, there is a lowpaid, continuously job changing, highly stressful side to agency work (Rasmussen et al.
1996; Alach and Inkson 2003). In the latter case, the question arises whether agency
work is voluntary or involuntary. The whole question of whether people are ‘pulled or
pushed’ into self-employment and/or agency work is a rather vexed one, with the various‘pull and push factors’ impacting differently on individuals (Bururu, Irwin and Melville1998; Firkin 2003; Perera 2003).
At the other end of the spectrum recent New Zealand research has found that manyagency workers are often quite satisﬁed with their status (Alach 2001; Casey and Alach
2002). The temporariness can have advantages, dependent on the family situation andperception of the agency workers. Also, some agencies are setting high standards intheir employment practices and it is noticeable that there have seldom been employment
court cases involving agencies. In fact, many ‘temps’ prefer to deal with agencies because
they take care of ‘all the hassles’ associated with employment. While anecdotal evidence
has unveiled a few examples of substandard employment practices, this involved only
smaller, ‘fringe’ agencies.

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 7

26/01/2005 8:01:36 p.m.

32 John Burgess, Erling Rasmussen and Julia Connell

The Australasian Model of Regulation of Agency Work
The Australasian model of temporary agency employment regulation is straightforward:
there is hardly any regulation. This is a characteristic shared with the temp industry in
the USA and the UK (Storrie, 2002; Peck and Theodore, 2001). Regulations can apply
at a number of different areas and levels: direct regulation of the agencies, regulationof the contract of employment for agency workers, regulation of employment conditions
associated with agency employment and regulation of the work undertaken by agency
workers.
In Australia and New Zealand, there is no national regulation of temporary work agencies.
Those regulations that do exist are conﬁned to the State jurisdiction in Australia.
Employment agents must be licensed in all states and territories except Victoria, Northern
Territory and Tasmania. Licensing involves an application for licensing; that is, ﬁlling in
a form and paying an application fee. Without the caveats and limitations on operations
found in much of the EU, Australian non-regulation of temporary work agencies stands
alongside Sweden, the UK and the USA.
In Australia and New Zealand there has been an absence of regulation, there is confusion
over employment status within the temporary work sector and there are no exclusions
with respect to temporary agency employment arrangements. Queensland was the ﬁrst
state to attempt to set out the nature of the employment relationship between the labour
hire company, hiring organisation and the worker (Queensland Industrial Relations Act,
1999). The Queensland Act establishes the temporary agency as the employer and thelabour hire worker as the employee. Similar legislation was introduced in Victoria in
2000. The NSW Taskforce on Labour Hire (2000) recommended that the employment
relationship involved in labour hire arrangements should be clearly established throughlegislation. While there has been debate and discussion of the NSW Labour Hire
Taskforce recommendations to date there has been very little legislative action, despite
media pressure (Hepworth, 2002). Unlike the EU there is no social directive or no national
policy that attempts to clearly set out the rights associated with labour hire employment.
In New Zealand, anyone can set up a recruitment and/or agency business, with noregistration or licensing being in place and with no need to provide proof of skills or
experience. The so-called ‘Davy case’ where a recruitment company placed a fraudster– the person had falsiﬁed his employment and education record - as a senior manager
created major headlines and resulted in the demise of the recruitment company(Rasmussen and McIntosh, 2002). This case also led to a debate regarding the possible
regulation of the industry but so far there has been no move in that direction. The
Recruitment and Consulting Services Association is attempting to provide a focal point
for the professionalisation of industry but the regulatory problem has less to do with the
major, well-established companies (many of these ﬁrms are members of the Association).

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 8

26/01/2005 8:01:36 p.m.

Temporary Agency Work in Australia and New Zealand 33

These ﬁrms – often with overseas owners or business links – market themselves as
having high quality recruitment, HRM and business practices. The issue is rather what
the standards are in the many small ﬁrms that inhabit the industry. This is a moot point
as there has been limited research of these ﬁrms and there appears to be a considerable
turnover amongst the smaller ﬁrms.
Thus, New Zealand has an unregulated ‘wild west’ approach to agencies and agency
work. For example, agencies can start up without any public quality control and conditionsof agency workers are, to some degree, a private matter between the contracting parties.
Recent research indicates that there is considerable interplay between various forms ofatypical employment, that many agency workers co-register and shift amongst agencies
and that many agency workers are quite content, depending on their work situations,labour market position and the current state of job opportunities (Alach and Inkson 2003;
Rasmussen and Deeks 1998).
In both Australia and New Zealand there are no reporting obligations, ﬁnancial bonds
do not have to posted by the agencies and there are no limitations on the occupations/industries that can be covered through agency employment arrangements. There isalso an absence of regulation with respect to the contract of employment and of theemployment status of agency workers.
The relatively small size of the temporary employment sector in Australia and New Zealandwould suggest that its non regulation or its ability to operate outside of a regulatory
framework should not be an issue of public concern. However, there is considerable
public concern over several negative aspects often associated with agency employment:
large corporations restructuring their workforce through the replacement of permanent
workers with labour hire workers (Telestra on Charges, 2003), for the potential for
labour hire workers to be subject to greater risk from workplace accidents (Underhill,2003), for labour hire workers to be without many rights and protections associated with
employee status (Hall, 2001) and for labour hire in itself to undermine any strategy toenhance formal and informal forms of on the job training and skills acquisition (Connell
and Burgess, 2001).
In both Australia and New Zealand labour hire represents a gap that can potentially be
exploited and lead to nefarious practices which, in the end, could undermine the credibilityof the industry and impose a cost on the public sector. The ambiguous employment
status has potentially adverse implications for labour rights, taxation status and access toemployment beneﬁts and workers compensation. In turn there is scope to use labour hire
practices to de-unionise the workplace, undermine employment conditions and avoid
statutory obligations linked to taxation and workers compensation. At one end of thespectrum labour hire organisations are linked to clandestine activities including illegal
immigration and tax evasion. The NSW Inquiry revealed that the reputable end of theindustry were after more extensive registration and regulatory requirements for operators

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 9

26/01/2005 8:01:36 p.m.

34 John Burgess, Erling Rasmussen and Julia Connell

in the industry.
In Australia there is a move towards the regulation of the employment contract where
the engagement exceeds 6 months. Beyond this threshold the conditions that apply topermanent employees should apply to labour hire workers (ACTU, 2003). However, theregulation of the conditions of employment is only one component of the panoply of
regulations that could be applied to the industry. A six-month threshold test may only leadto more short-term engagements or more engagements of independent contractors.

Conclusion
In principle there is a three party relationship between the TWA, agency workers anduser ﬁrms. This process of intermediation blurs the employment relationship, blurs theemployment status of the agency worker and the responsibilities of the three principal
parties. In other words, the relationship is not transparent, it is not linear and indeed it
may involve more than three parties. This makes it a difﬁcult area to research and evenmore difﬁcult to regulate. However, as we have shown, agency employment involves
a continuous tension between ﬂexibility and protection which makes it necessary toincorporate a public policy dimension in the debate. Although agency workers only
constitute a minor proportion of the total workforce, the high churning of temporary jobs,
the high growth rates, the impact on ‘standard’ employment situations and the negative
aspects sometimes associated with agency employment underline its public policy
importance.
In line with the UK and the USA, there is a surprising lack of regulation surrounding
agencies and agency work in Australia and New Zealand. This implies that there areseveral unanswered public policy issues associated with agency work. For example,
what is the ‘proper’ level of public regulation of agencies and agency work and how can
efﬁcient, low cost regulations be implemented and policed? In light of the discussion of the‘knowledge society’, it is also important to discuss how vocational education and training
can be enhanced and whether there are certain mechanisms and training systems thatare better than others? The commercial, media and academic interest in agency work
has so far not been match by a similar interest in the public policy dimension.
Finally, it is important to see agency work in both a wider theoretical and contextual
perspective and provide more speciﬁcity about agency work. The wider theoreticaland contextual perspective is necessary because there is considerable ﬂuidity acrosscountries, local labour markets, industries, occupations and individual people. The impact
of context creates a variety of trends which raises a number of questions about people’s
choices and the consequences of these choices. It also raises issues about so-called
work-life issues and what the role of non-work factors is in relationship to choices about
work and working time. Thus, the complexity of the interplay between situational factors
and individual choices needs to be further explored through wider perspectives and more

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 10

26/01/2005 8:01:36 p.m.

Temporary Agency Work in Australia and New Zealand 35

sensitivity towards individual circumstances and choices.

References
ACTU (2003), Future of Work: Casual and Insecure Forms of Employment Background Paper. www.actu.asn.au/congress2003/
papers (accessed 2/12)
Alach, P. (2001), Being a Temp. An exploratory study into the experiences of women clerical temps in New Zealand. M.Com
Thesis, The University of Auckland.
Alach, P. and Inkson, K. (2002), The new “ofﬁce temp”: alternative models of contingent labour. Paper, 10th Annual Conferenceon Labour, Employment and Work, Victoria University of Wellington, 21-22 November 2002.
Alach, P. and Inkson, K. (2003), Temping: a study of temporary ofﬁce workers in Auckland. Research Report, 2003/2, LabourMarket Dynamics Research Programme, Massey University, Auckland.
Aley, J. (1995), The Temp Biz Boom: Why it’s Good, Fortune. October 16, p. 53.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2000), Employment Services, Catalogue 8558.0, ABS, Canberra.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2001), Forms of Employment Survey, Catalogue 6361.0, ABS, Canberra.
Bronstein, A. (1991), ‘Temporary work in Western Europe: Threat or complement to permanent employment’, International Labour
Review, 130(3): 291-310.
Bururu, R., Irwin, D. and Melville, D. (1998), Labour market trends and outlook. Labour Market Bulletin, 1 & 2: 1-33.
Campbell, I. and Burgess, J. (2001), ‘A New Estimate of Casual Employment?’, Australian Bulletin of Labour, 27(2): 85-108.
Casey, C. and Alach, P. (2002), Just a Temp?: Women, Temporary Employment and Lifestyle. Paper, Conference of Sociological
Association of Aoteroa New Zealand, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, 5-7 December 2002.
CIETT (2000), ‘Orchestrating the Evolution of Private Employment Agencies towards a Stronger Society’, Proceedings from theInternational Conference of Private Employment Agencies, London.
Connell, J. and Burgess, J. (2001), ‘Skill, Training and Workforce Restructuring in Australia’, International Journal of Employment
Studies, 9(1): 1-24.
Deeks, J. and Rasmussen, E. (2002), Employment Relations in New Zealand. Auckland, Pearson Education.
Department of Labour. (1999), 1999 Brieﬁng of Ministers. Department of Labour, Wellington. www.dol.govt.nz. (Accessed 19 Oct.
2001)
Department of Labour. (2003), Future of Work. Department of Labour, Wellington. www.dol.govt.nz/futureofwork. (Accessed 22
Aug. 2003)
Firkin, P. (2003). Midwifery as non-standard work – Rebirth of a Profession. Research Report, 2003/1, Labour Market Dynamics
Research Programme, Massey University, Auckland.
Hall, R. (2000), ‘Outsourcing, Contracting Out and Labour Hire: Implications for Human Resource Development in AustralianOrganisations’, Asia Paciﬁc Journal of Human Resource, 38(2): 23-41.
Hall, R. (2001), ‘Labour Hire in Australia: Motivation, Dynamics and Prospects’, Proceedings from the Conference on Temporary
Employment, University of Newcastle, Australia.
Hepworth, A. (2002), Pressure Grows for Tougher Labour Hire Laws in NSW. The Australian Financial Review. September 20th.
Junankar, R. (2001), ‘The Free market Meets the Labour Market: The Coalitions Labour Market Reforms’, Proceedings from thePath to Full Employment Conference, University of Newcastle, Australia.
Massey University. (2003). Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme. Massey University, Albany. www.lmd.massey.ac.nz.
(Accessed 16 Sept. 2003).
NSW Department of Industrial Relations. (2000), Labour Hire Taskforce, Sydney.
OECD. (1996), Employment Outlook, Paris, OECD.
Peck, J. and Theodore, N. (2001), ‘All Temped Out?’, Proceedings from the Conference on International Perspectives on
Temporary Work and Temporary Workers, University of Newcastle, Australia.
Perera, H. (2003). Non-standard work in the accounting profession in New Zealand: some preliminary evidence. Research Report,
Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme, Massey University, Auckland.
Rasmussen, E. (ed.). (2004), Employment relationships: New Zealand employment relations reforms, Auckland, Auckland
University Press.
Rasmussen, E. (2001), ‘Atypical Employment and Working Time Issues in New Zealand and Denmark’, Proceedings from theConference on International Perspectives on Temporary Work and Temporary Workers, University of Newcastle, Australia.

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 11

26/01/2005 8:01:36 p.m.

36 John Burgess, Erling Rasmussen and Julia Connell

Rasmussen, E. and Deeks, J. (1998), Entrepreneurial workers - taking the Rough with the Smooth. in J. Lind (ed). Denmark andDown Under, Aalborg, LEO, pps 145-162.
Rasmussen, E. and McIntosh, I. (2002), Chronicle. New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations, 27(1):135-145.
Rasmussen, E., Deeks, J. and Street, M. (1996). The Entrepreneurial Worker: Changes to Work and Contractual Relationships.
in J. Gibson (ed): Accord or Discord? University of Waikato, Hamilton, pps.335-356.
Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RSCA). (2000), Submission on the Employment Relations Bill. Wellington, 3
May 2000.
Rubery, Earnshaw, J., Marchington, M., Cooke, F. and Vincent, S. (2000), ‘Changing Organisational Forms and the Employment
Relationship’, Proceedings from the Conference for the Advancement of Socio Economics, London School of Economics,
London.
Statistics New Zealand. (2003), Labour Market Statistics 2002. Wellington, Statistics New Zealand.
Storrie, D. (2002), ‘Temporary Agency Work in the European Union’, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living andWorking Conditions, Dublin, [Online] Available: www.eurofound.eu.int .
Underhill, E. (2003), Changing Work and OHS: the Challenge of Labour Hire Employment. www.actu.asn.au/public/ohs (accessed
2 December 2003)
Workers Online (2003), Telstra on Charges. www.workers.labor.net.au (accessed 1 December 2003).

3 Burgess et al final 26 Jan 05.indd 12

26/01/2005 8:01:36 p.m.

The New “Ofﬁce Temp” 37

The New “Ofﬁce Temp”: Alternative Models ofContingent Labour
PETRICIA ALACH AND KERR INKSON*

Abstract
This paper focuses on the working lives of temporary female clerical staff, usually known
as ‘temps’. Temps are commonly displayed as ‘victims’, who have poor pay and conditions,and are marginalised, economically insecure and socially isolated. Thirty-one temps
recruited through agencies in Auckland were interviewed. While they acknowledgedsome negative features of temping, most were temps by choice and remained so evenwhen temp work was scarce. They reported that temping provided them with control overtheir time and work, enabling them to give priority to non-work interests such as family,
leisure pursuits, vacations, business start-ups, and study. Temping was also valued forits variety, learning opportunities, and avoidance of long-term commitment to employing
organisations. While marginalisation and exploitation remain the reality for many
temporary workers, these ﬁndings show the contemporary possibility for workers withvalued skills to be proactive in exploiting apparently insecure employment arrangements
to their own advantage.

Introduction
This paper focuses on the working lives of temporary female clerical, secretarial andadministrative staff, commonly known as ‘temps’.
The growth of temping
Recent reports suggest that, stimulated by forces such as globalisation, increased
competition, economic uncertainty, restructuring, and the desire for ﬂexibility in theworkforce, the use of temporary workers has become an integral human resource practicein many businesses (Richards, 2001). Commentators observe a structural shift in theway temporary labour is utilised (Carre, 1992; Nollen, 1996; Richards, 2001). Temporary* Patricia Alach and Kerr Inkson are respectively a former Research Assistant and a former Professor, the Albany
Campus, Massey University.
The research reported in this paper was conducted under the auspices of the Labour Market Dynamics Research
Programme, Massey University, as part of its programme on Labour Market Dynamics and Economic Participation,
and was funded by a grant from Public Good Science Fund of the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science andTechnology. The authors are grateful to their Labour Market Dynamics colleagues and to the Recruitment and Consulting
Services Association, New Zealand Branch, for their assistance in enabling the research to take place, also to Associate
Professor Catherine Casey of The University of Auckland for her input to the theoretical framing of this paper.

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 1

26/01/2005 8:35:29 p.m.

38 Patricia Alach and Kerr Inkson

workers are no longer used just as ‘ﬁll-in’ labour or as a stop-gap measure related tochanges in the business cycle. Nowadays they are often placed in responsible positions
that are critical to business success (Brogan, 2001). Furthermore, while administrativeand clerical work continues to be a major locus of temporary employment, the practiceis diversifying. Temporary assignments are now commonplace in non-traditional labour
markets such as healthcare (Carre, 1992), information technology, sales and marketing(Richards, 2001) and high-level ‘executive contracting’, reported to be the biggest growtharea in temporary employment (Richards, 2001; Shopland, 2001).
As a result, analysts observe an increased demand for temporary staff and a rapid
expansion in the temporary recruitment industry (Appelbaum, 1992; Peck and Theodore,
1998; Richards, 2001). In the USA recruitment through temporary agencies accounted
for one-ﬁfth of all new jobs created since 1984 (Peck and Theodore, 1998).
Effects on temporary workers
In the past decade, concerns have been raised over the outcomes of the increased useof temporary staff for the staff themselves. These concerns relate both to their material
conditions and to the social and psychological implications of their temporary status.
Most authors report that temping is typically an employment arrangement involuntarily
entered into and that the majority of temps are seeking full-time, permanent employment(Gottfried, 1992; Hardy and Walker, 2003; Henson, 1996; Rogers, 1995; Smith, 1993;
Vosko, 2000). Concerns have been raised over the way in which temps are marginalised,isolated and exploited.
It is reported, for example, that temporary workers are typically paid less than permanent
employees and receive fewer beneﬁts (Nollen, 1996; Segal & Sullivan, 1997). Entitlement
to beneﬁts such as health insurance and pension plans is often tied to eligibility
requirements based on length of service (Garsten, 1999; Henson, 1996; Nollen, 1996).
Because social and labour legislation continues to be premised on the assumption thatthe worker is full-time, permanent and with a single employer, temps may have reduced
protection (Appelbaum, 1992; Carre, 1992). Turnover in the temping industry is high(Henson, 1996; Nollen, 1996; Peck & Theodore, 1998). Moreover, many temps areunaware of their eligibility for beneﬁts, and lack access to independent advice on theirrights (Gottfried, 1992; Nollen, 1996).
In addition to concerns about the material conditions of temping, many commentators
have drawn attention to its social and psychological costs. They report that negative
attitudes to temps are still apparent in contemporary organisations and contribute to a
climate of distrust between permanent and temporary staff (Smith, 1993; Rogers andHenson, 1997; Richards, 2001). They argue that temps are often spatially separated frompermanent workers (Smith, 1998), socially isolated, or rendered “interactionally invisible”(Rogers, 1995, page 151). Critics are concerned about individual temps’ sense of self

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 2

26/01/2005 8:35:29 p.m.

The New “Ofﬁce Temp” 39

worth when they are continually identiﬁed and interacted with as “just a temp” (Henson,
1996). Pejorative notions of the temps as sub-workers may become internalised bytemps, exacerbating their alienation from self and others at work (Rogers, 1995, 2000).
Although some temps obtain work by direct contact with a client organisation, many ﬁnd
their assignments through recruitment agencies. For example, on any given day, membersof the New Zealand Recruitment Services and Consulting Association (RCSA) employ
approximately 8,000 agency-afﬁliated temporary employees (RCSA, 2000). Concern has
been raised that temps are therefore required to function in a relationship of dependency,
relying totally on agencies for employment. Observers argue that they are marginalisedin the placement process because they are not consulted over how placement decisions
are made, and their preferences are seldom taken into account (Gottfried, 1992; Henson,
1996; Rogers, 1995). Typically, they are monitored constantly by their agency, usually bymeans of regular phone calls from agency supervisors to clients, and end-of-assignment
reports. Temps are seldom privy to this feedback and a ‘good’ report typically has to beinferred by continued offers of work (Alach, 2002).
An alternative view
The current study builds on work begun in 2001, as part of a Masters’ thesis, looking at
the experiences of women clerical temps in New Zealand (Alach, 2002). That thesis was
based on in-depth interviews with twelve women working as clerical temps. Key ﬁndingsin the thesis disputed the dominant discourse, outlined above, of ‘temp-as-victim’, andquestioned whether temping is necessarily experienced as isolated or marginalised. The
study posited emerging alternatives including ‘lifestyle temps’ who choose temping as
a way of securing income and ﬂexible free time for family and leisure commitments,and ‘entrepreneurial temps’ who choose temping as part of an overall career strategy.
However, because the way in which participants were sought in the thesis study (wordof-mouth ‘snowball’ sample) may have led to biases in the results, the current study
sought to gather interviews from a broader range of clerical temps.
Agencies
This study focused a wider sample, of temps employed through agencies. Accessing
temps through agencies enables end-user ﬁrms to utilise temporary staff as and whenrequired without having to employ them directly, without having to advertise, interview andselect a suitable individual, and without incurring the long-term commitment to, and costsof, permanent employees. The agency screens, tests and recruits potential candidates
on an on-going basis and sometimes trains them in order to ensure that they are suitably
skilled and ready for immediate deployment to client organisations.
The temp is legally employed by the agency, which invoices the client organisation for thehours she has worked, and pays her wages and other associated beneﬁts. Hourly rate,
conditions of work and length of assignment may all vary across assignments. Agencies

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 3

26/01/2005 8:35:29 p.m.

40 Patricia Alach and Kerr Inkson

are not required to give any guarantee of on-going work. Because of this, many temps
co-register with multiple agencies and may be technically employed by different agencies
across a variety of assignments during time they are temping (RCSA Report, 2000).

Objectives
The current study had as its objective to create a descriptive account of the orientations
and attitudes to work and employment of ofﬁce temps working through agencies in the
Auckland area. The researchers sought to establish the extent to which temps conformed
to the ‘victim’ stereotype or to alternative types. For example was temping involuntary
or voluntary, reactive or proactive, central or peripheral to identity? In addition, theresearchers considered other matters such as the role of temping in career development,
and the implications of temp attitudes for agencies, for client organisations, and forworkforce members considering temping. A full report of the study is available elsewhere(Alach & Inkson, 2003).

Methodology
In order to access as wide a range of experiences as possible, the researchers approachedtwenty recruitment consultancies in Auckland and asked for permission to send a letter
to women temping in clerical and secretarial roles for their agency, inviting them toparticipate in the study. Additionally, the researchers secured support for the project fromthe Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (New Zealand), which placed in its
quarterly newsletter an invitation to member agencies. Eight agencies participated in the
study. Interviews, each lasting about an hour, were carried out with 31 temps and nine
agency representatives.
The interviews were all conducted by the ﬁrst author. Those conducted with the temps
were semi-structured, with questions designed to draw the participants into discussion
about their experiences of temping. The sequencing of the questions was varied toaccommodate participant preferences and to allow participants to pursue the topics mostsalient to them. The questions asked the participants about their reasons for temping,their experiences of temping, and their relationship/s with temping agencies. Additionallythey were asked for their age, marital status, family situation and living arrangements.
The interviews were tape-recorded and summarised (typically 3-6 single-spaced pages
per interview, including key verbatim quotations).
Subsequent to the interviews, and based on scanning them, the second author preparedcategory systems, with deﬁnitions of each category, for three domains of comment bytemps:“positive features of being a temp”“negative features of being a temp”“comments on temp agencies”

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 4

26/01/2005 8:35:29 p.m.

The New “Ofﬁce Temp” 41

To provide a content analysis of the interviews, a research assistant then read carefully
through each summary interview, endorsing categories when she considered the person
had used words denoting the category. Each category could be endorsed only once perinterview.
The agency representatives were interviewed in order to gather background informationand insights into current and future trends in the temping industry and their perceptionsof temps’ lifestyles, attitudes, and manner of working.

Results
Background data
The temp participants ranged in age from 21 to 61 years. The median age was 40, and
20 of the participants (65%) were aged between 30 and 49. Seventeen were single,
divorced, or separated, but many of these were living with children or parents. Fourteen
were married or living with a partner. The length of time participants had been temping
ranged from two months to over ﬁfteen years. Participants had worked in a variety oftemp assignments ranging from simple data entry to high-level executive PA roles inpublic and private sector organisations and industries. The average hourly rate paid to
the temps ranged from around NZ$15 to $22.
The beneﬁts of temping
In contrast to other studies which have reported that most temporary workers would prefera permanent job, this study found that nearly all the ofﬁce temps interviewed preferred
not to have a permanent job, if they could be sure of regular, on-going temping work.
Why did participants have this preference? What did they ﬁnd attractive about being
temps? The positive features are indicated in Table 1.
Table 1. Positive features of being a temp (n mentioning)

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 5

26/01/2005 8:35:30 p.m.

42 Patricia Alach and Kerr InksonThis table demonstrates the beneﬁts of temporary work: ﬂexibility, control over one’stime, self-development opportunities, variety, and the avoidance of ongoing commitment
to an organization. Of these the critical ones were the ﬁrst two, ﬂexibility and learning.
Temping and ﬂexibility
Table 2. Positive features relating to ﬂexibility, autonomy, control over time(n mentioning = 25)

Table 2 provides a breakdown of responses by the 25 participants (81% of the sample)
who mentioned ﬂexibility, autonomy, and control of time as positive features of temping.
The perceived beneﬁts were largely related to the non-work settings and interests ofthe participants: temping afforded ﬂexibility in respect of family, leisure, educational or
business activities. For example:“It lets me be here for my son and basically keeps me in the workforce.”“I bet there are mothers out there who wouldn’t mind the opportunity to go temping
two are three days a week.”“Working temporarily has allowed me the ﬂexibility to attend meetings and conferences
around the world.”“I enjoy making art as a creative expression but I’m not interested in doing that as mysole type of work.”“I could see myself working at least two or three days a week while I do my study.”“I’m temping at the moment because it allows me to do set-up stuff for my own
company.”
For many of these temps, the decision to temp had come out of a desire to reposition paid
work in their lives. Temping was associated with a sense of being freed up to devote moretime to family or leisure activities. This was brought about not just by the ﬂexibility offeredby temping, but also by a shift in the way the women felt about their work. In particular,

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 6

26/01/2005 8:35:30 p.m.

The New “Ofﬁce Temp” 43

the references in Table I to “escape”, “walk out of the door”, and “avoid commitment”,
showed a common desire, as one temp put it, to “retain a certain distance from the work
which you can’t do as a permanent worker.”“I don’t like being tied down, I like being a free agent.”“You don’t really have to put your whole self in and you can just walk away at the endof the day and not be worried about it…and if I compare this job to my permanent job
where you were just expected to stay late and put in the hours, I’m really enjoying
the fact that at 5 o’clock I’m out the door, there’s no waiting around for another ten
minutes to do something, I’m just gone and that’s very cool!.”
The temps’ desire for autonomy was apparently allied in many cases to a rather negative
stereotype of permanent employment in a single organisation (see Table 1).
“That’s probably what’s stopping me from getting a permanent job because if you
don’t like a job temping you think ‘oh it’s only for 2 days or 3 weeks or 6 months’ but
you think ‘gosh if this was permanent I wouldn’t want to be stuck here’…so I’m a bit
hesitant to take the plunge.”“I don’t know about permanent, because that’s sort of a scary thing. I can’t imagine
being with one company forever, I don’t think people do that any more.”
Additionally, many participants made use of the on-off ﬂexibility that temping afforded
them and cited as a major beneﬁt the opportunity to decide, sometimes on a day-to-day
basis, whether they wanted to work.

“It suits me, I can work when I want. If I don’t want to work I can say no.”“I like temping, it gives me the ﬂexibility to go off to the States for three months. If I hada permanent job I’d probably have to resign and lose my job if I wanted that length oftime off, but with temping I can just give a few weeks’ notice and I’m free to go.”Temping and development
Permanent work is popularly believed to provide employees with greater opportunities fordevelopment through their organisation’s training and staff development programmes. In
contrast, the professional development of temps is not seen as a company responsibility.
However, as shown in Table 1, over three-quarters of the present sample mentioned
learning and self-development opportunities that related speciﬁcally to their status astemps. Table 3 provides a further breakdown of this information.

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 7

26/01/2005 8:35:30 p.m.

44 Patricia Alach and Kerr Inkson

Table 3. Positive features relating to learning and self-development(n mentioning = 24)

These temps reported that the ability to ‘move around’ had contributed to new insights
due to the range of situations. Typically, they had overcome shyness and ‘ﬁrstdayitis’,developed self-conﬁdence in dealing with different and novel people and situations, andwere better able to cope with uncertainty and to learn from each new situation.
“As a temp you’re always learning new things, not just about one thing but about
different companies and different people, policies and everything.”“Temping teaches you how to learn, how to get to know things and about being
ﬂexible, about being more conﬁdent, coping with being in new situations and how to
ask for help.”“You lose your fear of ﬁrst days because you have so many ﬁrst days. You don’t get
nervous and that’s a good thing.”“Now I can stroll into a new place, no worries about meeting new people or learning
new processes at all…lay it on, I can totally handle it!”
“I can go into all different kinds of companies and each time I learn a little bit more. It’senriching my life and my vocabulary and my experience.”
Such development seems especially valuable in the increasingly dynamic workplacesof the twenty-ﬁrst century, for these require the skills of versatility, responsiveness, andcoping with novelty and ambiguity which the temps report are most developed. This is
likely to beneﬁt both employing organisations and the temps themselves.
In addition, several temps recognised the networking opportunities provided bytemping.
“It’s a good way of getting around a lot of different companies and getting your nosein the door, meeting lots of different people.”

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 8

26/01/2005 8:35:30 p.m.

The New “Ofﬁce Temp” 45

Exposure to a range of workplaces also provided the opportunity for temps to gain
experience of a range of different processes, industries, types of people, software
packages, etc. These were of likely beneﬁt to the temp, both in securing future assignments
or even permanent jobs, and to subsequent employers.
“Temping is a really good way to pick up extra skills and give you variety – different
assignments, different work to do … a good way of getting experience and developing
transferable skills quite quickly.”
Temping and security
According to the ‘temp-as-victim’ stereotype, the main disadvantage of temping forthe temp is her marginalised position compared with permanently employed workers,
particularly her inevitable economic insecurity, her poorer pay, fringe beneﬁts, personal
development and progression, and social relationships. The stereotype is supported tosome extent by the data shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Negative features of being a temp (n mentioning)

The problems reported were often ﬁnancial in nature. In particular, the uncertainty of ongoing work meant that the temps couldn’t rely on a speciﬁc level of income every week.
However, most had found ways of minimising this ﬁnancial uncertainty. Several reported
that temps need to live within their means, to plan for the ‘peaks and ﬂows’ of temping
work, and to “keep money aside for a rainy day when there is no work”.
“there’s the freedom factor but then there’s also the not-knowing factor where you
don’t know if you are going to have work next week or if you go on holiday whether
there’s going to be work when you come back.”

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 9

26/01/2005 8:35:30 p.m.

46 Patricia Alach and Kerr Inkson“I think the only disadvantage would be if you had mortgage payments or rent because
you can’t guarantee the permanent income coming in.”Two respondents reported that they had had to get a permanent job in order to assureother people, namely ‘the bank’ that they were a viable risk.
“I want to buy a house and the bank has laughed hysterically at me.”
Surprisingly however, barely half the sample mentioned ﬁnancial insecurity, which was
rather part of a cluster of extrinsic work conditions, including pay levels and fringe beneﬁts,
in which temps felt disadvantaged.
Temping and work relationships
The supposed lower status and social isolation of the temp have also been cited in theliterature as disadvantages. This view is supported by some of the data in Table 4. The
category “difﬁculties in social relationships” (Table 4) is further sub-categorised in Table
5.
Table 5. Negative features relating to personal relationships (n mentioning = 24)

Although social isolation problems were reported, they tended to be conﬁned to the ﬁrst
day or so of an assignment. Overall, the temps reported that most of the people they
had met on assignment had been pleasant and helpful. Exceptions to this were generally
experienced in short-term, one-day reception roles, which were overwhelmingly reported
as the ‘least favourite’ of temp assignments.
Table IV also shows that stereotypes of temp work were perceived to be maintained byothers – employers and co-workers – in their interaction with temps. Temps reported
being looked down on as having lower status, and being given the “jobs that nobody elsein the ofﬁce is willing to do.” Yet they were also expected to be able to perform at a highlevel, typically from a ‘standing start’ in terms of their knowledge of the organisation andjob.

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 10

26/01/2005 8:35:30 p.m.

The New “Ofﬁce Temp” 47

Temps’ preferences
As in the Alach (2002) study cited earlier, the results go some way towards providing analternative to the dominant discourses which position temps as victims. The assumptionthat temping is always involuntary is challenged by these data. The temps recognised
both advantages in their status – primarily autonomy, lifestyle and self-development
opportunities - and disadvantages – economic insecurity, social difﬁculties and negative
stereotypes. However, the overwhelming majority maintained that they were temps
because they preferred to be temps and were not seeking permanent work.
Interestingly, and perhaps surprisingly, several participants (see Table 1) reported thatthey preferred temp work because they perceived it to be less risky than a permanentjob. Temp work was perceived as relatively easy to get: most participants reported thatthey had been given their ﬁrst assignment within days, if not hours, of registering withan agency. Several participants contrasted this with the length of time it can take to
get a permanent role and concluded that in this sense, temping can often be a morereliable and secure source of income than many permanent jobs, which under current
employment conditions are often at risk of being made redundant.
“The main beneﬁt is that it should be more sort of stable than permanent work because
they should be employing you straight away whereas if you were a permanent person
and you lost your job you’d have to spend a few weeks trying to ﬁnd a new one.”“I can get temping work quickly and easily. I’m experienced in it. It’s just the easy
option really for me.”This was particularly so for some participants who were attempting to make a career insome of the more volatile industries, such as television.
“Temping’s deﬁnitely been critical …. because if it hadn’t existed I would have had tochoose an alternative profession, or gone back to study, or compromised a lot in what
I wanted to do…”
Even in New Zealand, the events of September 11, 2001, created an immediate lossof business conﬁdence which translated into a relative slump in the ‘temp’ market. Thisaffected many interviewees in the present study, which was conducted in 2002, who at
the time of their interviews were experiencing or had recently experienced the downturn.
The timing of these interviews in comparison to similar interviews undertaken in theearlier study by Alach (2002) provided comparisons between the experiences of thosetemping in a relatively buoyant or depressed market.
Pre September 11th 2001, the temps interviewed by Alach (2002) reported plenty ofwork, and the ability to pick and choose assignments. In many cases they had a problem

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 11

26/01/2005 8:35:30 p.m.

48 Patricia Alach and Kerr Inksonof having ‘too much work’ and found it difﬁcult, because of constant demands to work,to achieve the lifestyle improvements they had anticipated when becoming a temp.
Such experiences of being in ‘too much demand’ were conﬁrmed at that time by industry
representatives who reported on a severe shortage of ‘good temps’ in the local market.
In contrast, respondents in the current study overwhelmingly reported that post September
11th the market for temps had dried up, with many temps experiencing a severe shortageof assignments, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2001 and the ﬁrst quarter of 2002. Thiswas experienced by the temps both in terms of having no assignments for weeks, or insome cases months, and in terms of being offered a different type of assignment - typicallyshorter-term, lower-level and paid at a lower rate. Agency representatives conﬁrmed thistrend, reporting that client organisations had become much more conservative in their‘temp spend’ and were seeking to provide temporary cover through internal reshufﬂing
rather than through using agency temps. Despite this, very few participants had actively
looked for permanent work, and of those who did, the majority cited as their primary
motive a desire to seek a more exciting and challenging role, rather than any ﬁnancial
imperative. The adherence of most temps to their current status despite adverse labour
market conditions provides strong evidence that some temps temp by choice.
Temping and careers
The majority of participants had made a conscious decision to start temping, for a varietyof reasons. Several participants, who were looking, ultimately, for permanent ‘career’jobs, found that temping enabled them to make unhurried decisions about the types ofrole they were considering (see Table 1).
“I’m going through a non-committal work phase at the moment but do plan to look
for a permanent job. I plan to be really fussy about it…so that’s what I’m going to do
and see what happens and if it doesn’t happen and I’m still temping in a year, well,
so what?”“I’m keeping an eye out for a permanent job if something really appeals to me but I’m
not willy-nilly applying for any old thing.”
Despite the subjectively-experienced positive features of temping, the public andemployer perception that temping is involuntary and not a ‘proper’ job appears to continue
to prevail. Participants reported their sense that the decision to temp continues to beviewed by others as a bad or non-career choice. This was expressed particularly by
those temps looking to move into permanent jobs, who were wary of how an extended
period of temping might be interpreted by prospective employers.
“I’m having difﬁculty getting the job I want because I’m seen as slightly erratic, slightly
unreliable and unfocused.”

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 12

26/01/2005 8:35:30 p.m.

The New “Ofﬁce Temp” 49“all of my work history has been temping and I think that makes it difﬁcult because I
don’t have a solid history in one place.”
However much temping may suit those who do it in their current circumstances, mostconsidered that if they wanted eventually to move either to permanent work or topositions carrying higher responsibility, they needed to avoid letting too many years go
by in temporary positions. However, they attributed this more to employer and societal
prejudices than to any inherent defect of the temping experience or those who do it.
Temping and agencies
When a temp is recruited and assigned by an agency, the nature of the employment
relationship is unconventional. Client organisations handle only the supervision of her
day-to-day work. Her assignments, pay, and longer-term welfare are negotiated withagencies, and temps are typically available to more than one agency. Asked about
agencies, participants made it clear that they had transferred many of the expectations
permanent employees have of their employers to their agencies. The key expectations
that the temps had were that the agency would:• ﬁnd them regular assignments;• ﬁnd them assignments appropriate to their interests and skills;• keep in touch with them when on assignment;• provide information, feedback, recognition, and training;• care about them.
While some agencies – seeking perhaps to retain the loyalty of especially valuable temps– clearly went to some lengths to meet these expectations, the prevailing opinion among
the temps concerning the agencies was more negative than positive. There were speciﬁccomplaints about agency performance in all the above areas, particularly that agencies
provided inappropriate assignments and didn’t care about the temp. Another common
complaint was that the turnover of agency staff was frequently so rapid that these staff
were often unaware of the temp’s speciﬁc skills and interests. It was clear, too, that the
splitting of responsibility for the temp’s development between clients, agencies, and thetemp herself was a difﬁcult issue.

Discussion
As in the Alach (2002) study, the results go some way towards providing an alternative tothe dominant discourses which position temps as victims. In this research, the assumption
is challenged that temping is always involuntary and always results in disadvantage.
In contrast to reports which ﬁnd that the majority of temporary workers would prefer apermanent job, this study found that most of the ofﬁce temps interviewed were temporary

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 13

26/01/2005 8:35:30 p.m.

50 Patricia Alach and Kerr Inkson

by choice and preferred not to have a permanent job. This was true even in conditions of
reduced demand for their services.
These workers found that temporariness provided them with ﬂexibility, autonomy andcontrol over their days and hours of work, enabling them to ﬁt paid work in around otherpriorities such as vacations, leisure pursuits and family commitments. The variety ofassignments also provided a range of learning opportunities which were perceived to
be unavailable in permanent work. Participants were wary of committing to a permanent
job, mainly due to fears of getting bored and/or stuck in a speciﬁc situation. Against theadvantages of temping, the disadvantages - relative economic insecurity, inequitable work
conditions, occasional social isolation, and the prejudices of co-workers and employers– were perceived as minor. For many temps, the condition of contingency employment
had become the preferred backdrop to their lifestyle, regardless of external labour market
forces. They had indeed found a way to ﬁt work in around their non-work lives rather thanﬁtting non-work pursuits around a permanent work commitment.
These ﬁndings may have been caused in part by the ‘volunteer’ nature of the sample,
and we do not suggest they are characteristic of all, or even most, temporary workers.
However, they are strong and consistent enough in the present group to raise questions
about the universality of the conventional model of contingent workers. While we
acknowledge that many temporary employees are indeed disadvantaged, in some cases
temporariness is a choice made by individuals who have a range of employment options
available to them.
However, many respondents, both temps and consultants, reported that an extended
period of temping “doesn’t look good on paper.” Apparently some employers still thinkof ‘career’ in a narrow, permanent-employment-focused way. Moreover, conventional
associations such as equating ‘length of time served’ to ‘value of contribution’, appear
to prevail, much to the chagrin of temps. This presents an interesting paradox, because
contemporary workers are increasingly called upon to display an ability to adapt and‘embrace change.’
It may also be that the nature of ofﬁce temping, i.e. still predominantly low status
female-dominated clerical work, mediates the image of those who choose to do it. We
suspect, for example, that male leased executives and contract software developers
are perceived as having a healthy desire for change and new challenges rather thanthe lack of commitment for which employers apparently criticise clerical temps. Does anunconscious sexism inform these different expectations?
The extension of temporary forms of work to larger numbers of people and a wider rangeof occupations – particularly occupations requiring technical and professional skills is doubtless important in enabling more qualiﬁed and proactive individuals to choose
temporary work and to frame it to suit their needs rather than seeing it as ‘employment

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 14

26/01/2005 8:35:31 p.m.

The New “Ofﬁce Temp” 51of last resort’. Recent accounts of professional workers in temporary and contingent
situations and portfolio careers echo many of the phenomena reported in this paper(Cohen and Mallon, 1999; Fenwick, 2003; Gold and Fraser, 2001; Inkson et al., 2001). It
is the extension of the phenomenon of ‘lifestyle temping’ from these groups to relatively
lower-level administrative, secretarial and clerical workers which is of interest here. Caseyand Alach (2004) provide a further discussion on temping by preference, which resultsfrom a choice to re-prioritise other activities over participation in conventional full-time
paid employment. The phenomenon may be another manifestation of the phenomenonof ‘downshifting’ in pursuit of a more balanced lifestyle (Drake, 2001).
The possession of highly valued skills in a competitive labour market is doubtless acharacteristic of ‘volunteer’ contingent workers, and this study results suggest this may
nowadays be true for at least some workers in relatively subordinate roles. We believethat research into ‘contingency’ in relation to paid work should seek to understand not justthe ways in which the availability of work is contingent on economic and organisational
imperatives, but also the ways in which individuals make decisions about whether to takeon such work and the rationality of such decisions in relation to their wider priorities. It
should therefore focus on the subjective experience of those involved, and recognise thecomplementarity of individual agency with social structure in determining employment
patterns.

Conclusion
This study presents a challenge to conventional wisdom about the motivations andexperiences of temps. Nowadays, we suggest, more organisations are choosing to utilise
temporary labour, and more people are choosing temporary work as a preferred way ofworking and living. These shifts have resulted in a new set issues for employers andworkers. Both groups have to consider the implications of the three way employment
relationship (employer, employee, agency), the redistribution of responsibilities such as
allocation/choice of work, and training/personal development, and the challenges thispresents to all parties. Workers have to consider whether temporary options suit their
aspirations and lifestyle, and recognise its difﬁculties as well as its advantages: temping
is not for all (Alach and Inkson, 2003: 55-59). And employers need to ponder anew
how to engage to mutual advantage with members of the workforce who are proud of
their professionalism and their reputation, and who have valuable skills, versatility andﬂexibility, but who make a virtue out of lack of commitment to the current organisation.

References
Alach, P. (2002), Being a Temp: an Exploratory Study into the Experiences of Women Clerical Temps in New Zealand, MComthesis, University of Auckland.
Alach, P., and Inkson, K. (2003), Temping: a Study of Temporary Ofﬁce Workers in Auckland. Labour Market Dynamics Research
Programme, Research Report 2003/2, Massey University.
Appelbaum, E. (1992), Structural change and the growth of part-time and temporary employment. In DuRivage, V. L. (ed.), New

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 15

26/01/2005 8:35:31 p.m.

52 Patricia Alach and Kerr Inkson

Policies for the Part-Time and Contingent Workforce. New York and London, M.E. Sharpe.
Brogan, T. W. (2001), Scaling new heights: ASA’s annual analysis of the stafﬁng industry. Stafﬁng, May-June: 1-8.
Carre, F. J. (1992), Temporary employment in the eighties. In DuRivage, V. L. (ed), New Policies for the Part-Time and Contingent
Workforce. New York and London, M.E. Sharpe.
Casey, C., and Alach, P. (2004). “Just a temp?” women, temporary employment and lifestyle. Work, Employment and Society,18(3): 459-480.
Cohen, L., and Mallon, M. (1999), Don’t you fence me in, i can do that myself: perceptions of portfolio working and the boundarylesscareer. Work, Employment, and Society,13(2): 329-352.
Drake, J. D. (2001), Downshifting: How to Work Less and Enjoy Life More. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
Fenwick, T. (2003), Flexibility and individualisation in adult education work: the case of portfolio educators. Journal of Educationand Work, 16(2): 165-184.
Garsten, C. (1999), Betwixt and between: temporary employees as liminal subjects in ﬂexible organisations. Organisation Studies,20(4): 601-617.
Gold, M., and Fraser, J. (2002), Managing self-management: successful transition to portfolio careers. Work, Employment andSociety, 17(4): 367-375.
Gottfried, H. (1992), In the margins: ﬂexibility as a mode of regulation in the temporary help service industry, Work, Employment
and Society, 6(3): 443-460.
Hardy, D. J., and Walker, R. J. (2003), Temporary but seeking permanence: a study of New Zealand temps. Leadership andOrganization Development Journal, 24 (3): 141-152.
Henson, K. D. (1996), Just a Temp. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Inkson, K., Heising, A., and Rousseau, D. M. (2001), The interim manager: prototype of the 21st century worker?, Human
Relations, 54(3): 259-284.
Nollen, S. D. (1996), Negative aspects of temporary employment, Journal of Labour Research, 17(4): 567-582.
Peck, J., and Theodore, N. (1998), The business of contingent work: growth and restructuring in Chicago’s temporary employment
industry, Work, Employment and Society, 12(4): 655-674.
Richards, M. (2001), The psychology of the temporary employment industry, Human Resources, August.
Rogers, J. K. (1995), Experience and structure of alienation in temporary clerical employment. Work and Occupations, 22(2):137-166.
Rogers, J. K. (2000), Temps: The Many Faces of the Changing Workplace. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press.
Rogers, J. K., & Henson, K. D. (1997), “Hey, why don’t you wear a shorter skirt?”: structural vulnerability and the organisation ofsexual harassment in temporary clerical employment. Gender and Society, 11(2): 215-237.
R.S.C.A Report (2000), Submission on the Employment Relations Bill. Wellington NZ, Recruitment and Consulting Services
Association.
Segal, L. M., & Sullivan, D. G. (1997), The growth of temporary services work. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 11(2): 117136.
Shopland, A. (2001), Stars in a temporary role, New Zealand Herald, 20.08.01
Smith, V. (1993), Flexibility in work and employment: the impact on women. Research in the Sociology of Organisations, 11:
195-216.
Smith, V. (1998), The fractured world of the temporary worker: power, participation and fragmentation in the contemporary
workplace, Social Problems, 45(4): 411-430.
Vosko, L. F. (2000) Temporary Work: The Gendered Rise of a Precarious Employment Relationship. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press.

4 Alach & Inkson 26 Jan 05.indd 16

26/01/2005 8:35:31 p.m.

The Screen Production Industry in New Zeland 53

Flexibility in the Complex World of Non-Standard
Work: The Screen Production Industry in New
Zealand
ANNE DE BRUIN* & ANN DUPUIS**

Abstract
The academic debate around workplace ﬂexibility has resulted in an impasse. This
article argues that polarised macro positions are not especially useful in illuminating
the complexities of the operation of contemporary labour markets. To move beyond
the current impasse, understanding the labour ﬂexibility of particular industries andoccupational groups is necessary.
New Zealand’s screen production industry provides an example of a knowledge-basedindustry where workplace ﬂexibility is a necessary prerequisite for its operation. Drawing
on research with industry practitioners in Auckland, this article discusses the major
features of this industry. Issues pertaining to project and employment uncertainty and theimportance of social capital in securing and maintaining employment are highlighted.

Introduction
Labour market ﬂexibility has been a major dimension of workplace change over the lastquarter of a century in the developed world. A seminal text which signalled important
implications of the transition from the previous dominant workplace organisational modeof mass production to that of workplace ﬂexibility was Piore and Sabel’s 1984 publication,
The Second Industrial Divide. The very sub-title of the book Possibilities for Prosperity
gestured towards the connection between new forms of workplace organisation andsustained economic outcomes. The key argument offered in this text was that theFordist-type system of mass production, which had acted as the ‘engine of growth’ forthe post-war period, was no longer able to sustain America’s competitive position in
the world economy, especially since developing countries were able to mass produce* Anne de Bruin is Professor of Economics, College of Business, Massey University, Auckland.
** Ann Dupuis is Associate Professor in Sociology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University,
Auckland.
This research draws on work associated with the Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme, funded by theFoundation for Research, Science and Technology via the Public Good Science Fund. The authors would like toacknowledge this support over a number of years.

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 1

26/01/2005 7:20:17 p.m.

54 Anne de Bruin and Ann Dupuis

goods at lower costs. They put forward, therefore, the prospect of jettisoning this system
which had done so much to establish American industrial supremacy. In its place they
recommended the adoption of ﬂexible workplace systems. These entailed establishing
new systems of workplace organisation that took advantage of worker participation andspecialised knowledge which, in conjunction with continual workplace training, would
result in workers being able to ‘specialise ﬂexibly’, thus having the facility to rapidly alter
their product and produce goods of high quality.
In the academic literature, the debate around workplace ﬂexibility quickly becamepolarised. On the one hand, advocates for workplace ﬂexibility - following approaches
similar to Piore and Sabel’s - argued for the value of, for example, just-in-time inventory
practices, job expansion and rotation and the use of new technologies, as means throughwhich greater worker engagement, creativity and responsibility would be achieved, atthe same time as eliminating wastage and ensuring optimum efﬁciency. On the other
hand, critics of workplace ﬂexibility remarked on a situation where, even with signiﬁcantorganisational changes, workers still remain disadvantaged. Smith (1997) neatly sums
up the dichotomised positions. On one side there are “newly skilled, continually learning,
empowered and engaged workers, aided by entrepreneurial managers, [who] strive torelax and ﬂatten rigid bureaucracies, trim excessive use of organizational resources(including time, space and people), and use their experiential knowledge to improve
the way they produce goods or serve people”. By contrast, others see ﬂexibility as “little
more than a new permutation of work that disadvantages workers but offers employers
signiﬁcant dividends” (Smith, 1997: 315-316).
In the New Zealand context, the rapid and major changes to the political economy in
the 1980s and beyond meant that workplace ﬂexibility was supported by both major
political parties. Employers too encouraged workplace ﬂexibility. Decentralisation andthe deregulation of the industrial relations system were among the selected changemechanisms so that hours of work, pay and conditions of employment, amongst others,
could be determined at the workplace level. One outcome of deregulation was the abolitionof New Zealand’s long-standing arbitration system and its replacement by a system ofindividual and collective contracts. Under the Employment Contracts Act (ECA) 1991,
conciliation and arbitration were abolished, the monopoly bargaining rights and blanket
coverage of unions was removed and freedom of association introduced in the workplace(Harbridge, 1993). Supporters of the Act within the business community, and particularly
the Business Roundtable, felt that this would facilitate economic growth and increase
employment, whereas the many detractors (see for example, Kelsey, 1997), highlighted
the mounting vulnerability of workers in non-standard employment.
In 2000 the Employment Relations Act (ERA) was introduced, representing a deliberate
shift by the Labour Government from the pure contractual approach which underpinned
the ECA. As such, the ERA is more prescriptive and seeks to regulate the employment
relationship on the basis of ensuring a greater degree of fairness or balance in the

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 2

26/01/2005 7:20:17 p.m.

The Screen Production Industry in New Zeland 55

employer-employee relationship (Deeks and Rasmussen, 2002; Rossiter and McMorran,2003). The question still remains as to whether the regulation of alternative working
arrangements will lead to any change in the nature of these relationships (Rossiter andMcMorran, 2003).
Deregulation of labour relations is, however, only one facet of workplace ﬂexibility. Other
factors include workplace restructuring, rationalisation and redundancies. Macky (2004),
in an examination of New Zealand workers’ experiences of organisational downsizing
and redundancies, deﬁned downsizing as ‘a deliberate reduction by management to
reduce a ﬁrm’s size in terms of the number of employees it has’, and noted the various
strategies through which this could be accomplished. These included: outsourcing of thework employees had previously performed; eliminating certain functions or activities that
had previously taken place; delayering, or the cutting out of levels in the hierarchy; theelimination of business units; natural attrition in terms of not replacing workers when theyleft a ﬁrm; retirement incentives; and redundancies (Macky, 2004: 63).
A corollary of workplace ﬂexibility has been the rise in non-standard work (NSW). While
NSW itself has always existed, what has changed in recent times is the increase in the
proportion and consistency of this phenomenon (Zeytinoglu and Muteshi, 1999; Firkin etal., 2003). NSW is generally conceptualised as work that is no longer characterised bycertain features that have been regarded as standard. These include full-time hours, a
regular working week, access to non-wage beneﬁts, having the status of an employee,and being located in particular places (Burgess and Watts, 1999). Thus instead ofworking full-time for a single employer with the assumption of ongoing employment, thegrowing trend is towards self-employment, part-time work, irregular and less predictable
hours and less security and continuity of job tenure. In addition, the reliance on direct
employment decreases and instead, labour requirements are outsourced, or employees
are provided by intermediaries. A complex web of relationships and arrangements haveemerged and because of the numerous exchanges among individuals, teams andemployers ‘[t]he interplay [of these] may seem downright chaotic’ (Littleton et al., 2000:
101). Various descriptors have been applied to NSW including ‘non-traditional’, ‘atypical’,‘ﬂexible’, ‘alternative’, ‘market-mediated’, ‘vagrant’, ‘vulnerable’, ‘precarious’, ‘disposable’and ‘contingent’ (Kalleberg, 2000: 2). The nuances associated with these terms indicatethat NSW also has its supporters and detractors.
It is clear that neither workplace ﬂexibility nor NSW are unitary phenomena. Such anobservation is hardly novel. However, the point of this article is not to rehearse arguments
regarding the extent to which they are characterised by homogeneity, diversity or
fragmentation. Nor is it to argue for one or other normative position. Rather, the purpose
is to highlight the complex nature of the intersection between the two phenomena. Our
intention is to move beyond the positive/negative conﬁnes of the debates around workplace
ﬂexibility and NSW and demonstrate that it is necessary to explore particular instances of
workplace ﬂexibility within particular industries, to appreciate the complexities involved.

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 3

26/01/2005 7:20:17 p.m.

56 Anne de Bruin and Ann Dupuis

Drawing on recent research into the screen production industry in the Auckland Region (deBruin and Hanrahan, 2003), we put forward the proposition that workplace ﬂexibility is anecessary prerequisite and inherent component for this industry at least, and suggest this
could be likely too for other similar knowledge-based industries. After a brief discussion
on workplace ﬂexibility and its dimensions we turn our attention to the screen productionindustry case study material, with particular reference to the structural aspects of thisindustry that make it necessary for ﬂexible practices to predominate. The latter part of thearticle then examines two issues and problems that arise as a result of the dominance of
these practices: uncertainty in the industry; and securing employment.

Workplace ﬂexibility
The word ‘ﬂexibility’ is understood in everyday language to have positive connotations.
One common usage is in relation to physical ﬂexibility, where having a ﬂexible body isdeemed a highly positive attribute. It is seen as a concomitant aspect of health and wellbeing associated with physical agility and freedom of movement. The Olympic gymnast
or circus acrobat, who are physically ﬂexible in the extreme, draw widespread admiration.
In the world of ﬁnance, ﬁnancial packages are marketed on the basis of their degree of
ﬂexibility. Thus for example, the array of designer mortgages that cater to the variety ofneeds and circumstances of borrowers can be seen as desirable in that they offer not
only a range of choice but also ﬂexibility to suit individual preferences. Be it in fashion,modes of learning or mix and match travel packages, it is assumed that there are beneﬁts
that go hand in hand with choice and adaptability.
The masking effect of the commonplace association of the beneﬁcial connotation of theterm ﬂexibility is that it pushes any negative aspects of labour market ﬂexibility to thesidelines. Demasking the term can however, clarify its ideological underpinnings. Previous
work we have been associated with (see for example Firkin et al., 2003; McLaren et al.,2004) has explored ﬂexibility issues for two sets of non-standard workers – those skilled
and qualiﬁed workers whose work had a knowledge or technology focus and who could
best be described as occupying a relatively privileged labour market position and anotherset of workers in more traditional lower-paid and/or contingent work. While both sets ofworkers shared some common responses to ﬂexibility issues, the major outcome was thatthose workers at the margins experienced much greater disadvantage. In the ensuing
discussion, in order to highlight possible negative attributes associated with ﬂexibility, we
distinguish between both employer and worker ﬂexibility.
Forms of labour ﬂexibility have become part and parcel of the discourse and debate on the
dynamics of the labour market, the changing world of work and work practices. In order
to come to grips with the varied concepts of ﬂexibility, however, we feel it is necessary at
the outset to distinguish between employer or ﬁrm level ﬂexibility, and worker ﬂexibility.
The former is often asserted to be necessary in order that the ﬁrm or organisation canadjust and operate in the face of the intense competition of a new era of globalisation. It

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 4

26/01/2005 7:20:17 p.m.

The Screen Production Industry in New Zeland 57

involves the ability of the ﬁrm to respond to changing economic conditions mainly by one
or any combination of three means of securing ﬂexibility: numerical ﬂexibility, functional
ﬂexibility and wage or reward ﬂexibility (Casey, Metcalf and Millward 1997; Mitchie andSheehan, 2003).
Numerical ﬂexibility is the ability to vary the quantity of labour by using NSW arrangements.
As previously noted, the standard work model is characterised by full-time work with asingle employer at the employer’s site, with the expectation of ongoing employment,
continuity of job tenure and regular, full-time working hours (de Bruin, Dupuis andSpoonley, 2004). By contrast, non-standard workers range from part-time, temporary,and seasonal workers, independent contractors or freelancers, short ﬁxed term andcasual contract employees, to home or outworkers. Firms may also use intermediaries– ‘temp’ agencies or third party labour suppliers, to enable numerical ﬂexibility. Numericalﬂexibility can be further subdivided into external and internal numerical ﬂexibility. External
numerical ﬂexibility refers to adjusting the number of employees according to employers’
needs, whereas internal numerical ﬂexibility has to do with the adjustment of employee
working hours to accommodate company needs while retaining the same number of
employees (Easton, 1997: 173-174).
Functional ﬂexibility differs from the external labour market source of numerical ﬂexibility
in that it is an internal response. It involves the blurring of skill and job demarcations.
Multi-tasking and team working is a feature of the organisation of ‘core’ work of the ﬁrm
and workers acquire a ‘knowledge portfolio’ which enhances their ﬂexibility and mobility(Carnoy, 1999). Wage or reward ﬂexibility is the ability to adjust remuneration in orderto respond to changing conditions or to incentivise productivity through such activities as
performance-related pay schemes.
The notion of worker ﬂexibility offers a perspective usually premised on personal choiceof the worker. Thus for example, caring responsibilities of women with young children
and the needs of students are two common reasons for the supply of NSW. The mootquestion, however, is the degree to which choice and constraint conﬂate. The constraintsof low pay, insecurity, and the unpredictability of work hours and schedules, muddy theissue of worker ﬂexibility and as our previous research showed, for some categories of
non-standard workers choice may, in fact, be illusory (Firkin et al., 2003; McLaren et al.,2004).
Mitchie and Sheehan (2003) and Mitchie and Sheehan-Quinn (2001) make a distinction
between ‘low road’ and ‘high road’ labour ﬂexibility practices. The low road is the use of
more readily available ﬂexible labour practices arising from labour market deregulation,
namely part-time and temporary contracts and similar ‘non-traditional’ contracts and alack of employer commitment to job security. High road ﬂexibility couples functional
ﬂexibility with employment security and is found in ‘high commitment’ organisations or‘transformed’ workplaces. The latter form of ﬂexibility is positively correlated with both

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 5

26/01/2005 7:20:17 p.m.

58 Anne de Bruin and Ann Dupuis

good corporate performance (Michie and Sheehan-Quinn, 2001) and innovation (Mitchieand Sheehan, 2003).
In the next sections we move away from normative issues. In fact, we go so far as
to suggest there is something of a dissonance between theoretical arguments andperspectives that distinguish between high and low road labour ﬂexibility and theexigencies of practice that operate in real workplace situations. We also argue thattheoretical positions underpinned by normative considerations may be less than useful.
Drawing on case study material from research on the screen production industry, wedemonstrate that a way through the impasse of entrenched positions is to examine thespeciﬁcities within distinct labour markets or industries. Once a deeper understandingof the speciﬁc nature of these phenomena is established, then recourse to normative
positions becomes patently problematic.

Case Study: The Screen Production Industry
The Research
The study to which we make reference in this section, was commissioned by AREDS(Auckland Regional Economic Development Strategy) with the aim of providing improved
understanding of labour market issues pertaining to the screen production industry in
the Auckland Region. In addition to an examination of relevant literature, the qualitative
component of the study comprised twenty six semi-structured in-depth interviews withparticipants who worked in the screen production industry in creative, technical, writing
and production, and ofﬁce roles. Recognising that these roles cut across various
segments of the screen production industry it was decided to interview participants fromsix speciﬁc areas in the screen production industry: ﬁlm production; broadcast television
production – TV; television commercials production (TVCs); Maori screen production;
animation; and post-production.
Given that personnel may undertake a wide range of tasks depending on their individual
job role and that these could easily vary between ﬁrms and/or projects, it was deemednecessary to establish as well as get a ‘feel for’ what industry practitioners regarded as
the generic/core skills and other requirements of various jobs; the nature of industry/ﬁrm
speciﬁc skills, non industry/ﬁrm speciﬁc skills and transferable skills; and the shortage/
surplus of these various skills. Integrally linked to the exploration of skills was aninvestigation into the impact and implications of current and future education and training
regimes on the pool of skills for the industry. In the next subsections we use excerpts fromthe interviews with people working in the screen production industry to highlight salientfeatures, speciﬁc to the industry, that support our contention that workplace ﬂexibility is anecessary prerequisite of, and inherent component for, this industry.

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 6

26/01/2005 7:20:17 p.m.

The Screen Production Industry in New Zeland 59

Features of the Screen Production Industry
The screen production industry is a diverse, complex, multi-sector and multi-occupationindustry. In New Zealand, it is small scale in scope and size and in terms of its fundingbase. One participant remarked that as a consequence high performance and quality
were required.
In my job, we have got to really perform. We are supposed to be really efﬁcient.
That’s why the New Zealand industry exists at all, because we’re more efﬁcientthan other industries. It’s a luxury. The money is so tight now. We spread it out
so sparingly. We agonize so much over the budget. You really want the best thatyou can get for that money.
Its project-based nature is an industry hallmark. Like many such industries, there is ahigh concentration of independent contractors and freelancers and a predominance ofsmall business operators. As such, it epitomises NSW patterns. Screen production is
also a highly competitive industry.
We are out there competing with Toronto, competing with Montreal, competingwith Vancouver, competing with Israel, competing with Florida and competing with
South Africa, competing with Ireland deﬁnitely. We are not competing directly with
Ireland. I have never been in a situation where they have gone New Zealand or
Ireland but the sort of ﬁlms that we have made in Ireland are the sort of ﬁlms that
could get made here. Ireland’s population is 4,000,000, the same as New Zealandand their average wage is exactly twice what the New Zealand average wage is.
This is interesting because they have subsidies to attract ﬁlmmakers and they are
a very big industry. Things like Saving Private Ryan.
The research data indicated that in order to be competitive, industry operators were often
forced into ways of operating that brought their own sets of problems. As one participant
noted:
Suddenly there is a big contract in and it is a 24 part series and you suddenly haveto hire everyone and anyone that is out there and a lot of those people are directly
out of training schools, and I don’t regard them as being ready for international
work, so not only are you dealing with having to compete with Paciﬁc rim countries
that have studios full of thousands of people, you’re also having to compete andtrain dozens of people at the same time.
At the global level, macroeconomic variables such as the exchange rate impact on theindustry add to market uncertainties. Technology changes too have an important effect,
while external factors, such as government incentives, tax treatment and subsidies
and funding regimes, can all be critical to the industry’s growth and development.

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 7

26/01/2005 7:20:17 p.m.

60 Anne de Bruin and Ann Dupuis

The animation sector of the industry provides an interesting example of the impact ofexternal factors. The size of the domestic market and the cost of animation limit domestic
funding and consumption of animated television series with a local focus. International
investment was seen therefore, as the only way to attract highly skilled and experienced
staff to assist in the growth of the animation industry, especially in light of low rates ofdomestic investment.
New Zealand on Air give the most pitiful amount of money, which is ﬁne if you aredoing a live action ﬁlm… it only takes half an hour to produce half an hours worth
of footage, but with animation, to produce half an hours footage, you are talking
about six months with a crew of six people to…it is just too expensive.
The industry is one of activity peaks and troughs. In large part this is due to the projectbased nature of the work and the concomitant ﬂuctuations in the demand for labour. The
quote below, which is from the commercials sector of the market, encapsulates this incolourful terms:…but I guess it’s the tricky nature of the industry in the way that no one will haveshot for a month or two – it’ll be dead. Then suddenly the advertising agencies,
all their clients, all decide that they want the job done, shot the same week, there’s
no cohesion and suddenly you can ring up and get any crew member you want,
you can get the post booking you want, the luxury of the gear…a week later, it’sa shit ﬁght
Intensive work and long working hours is often characteristic of many jobs in the industry.
This can arise both from the project nature of the work as well as passion for the job.
We do a lot of all-nighters here and certainly it’s not even out of the normal tobe working a weekend. … just love it and they’ll do 10-12 hour days. It’s not
unusual.
The screen production industry is generally perceived as a glamour industry. Clearly it
is an industry that young people ﬁnd enticing. When ﬂexibility goes hand in hand withextreme uncertainty it is generally perceived as disadvantaging workers. However,when the nature of the industry is such that overlaying these circumstances is the glossof glamour then, especially young people will put up with a lot simply in order to be
associated within such exciting work environments.

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 8

26/01/2005 7:20:17 p.m.

The Screen Production Industry in New Zeland 61

Behind the Screen: problems and issues
A number of issues arose from the screen production industry research especially withregard to skills, labour supply and demand and questions around training. In this section,
however, we take up two broader issues: those around uncertainty of employment; andissues pertaining to how people ﬁnd employment in the screen production industry.
Uncertainty in the Screen Production Industry
In his work on the risk society, Ulrich Beck (1992) argues that one of the outcomes of living
in a world dominated by risk has been the development of uncertain and insecure formsof lived experience, including the emergence of different forms of working arrangements
and the growth of other pre-existing non-standard forms. Such a description could wellapply to the screen production industry generally, especially in light of the project-based
nature of the work. This sets up a very dynamic work context, whereby the high proportionof independent contractors and freelance workers tend to move quickly from one projectto another, or even juggle multiple projects simultaneously. The feature of peaks andtroughs noted earlier also means that the industry is characterised by ﬂuctuations in the
demand for labour and thus a lack of continuity of work. The implications for employers
are obvious.
When you are dealing with short-term contracts you can’t expect people to hangaround waiting for you to be able to put in place another gig, when someone else
offers them one. It’s volatile and it’s competitive. It is small.
Industry uncertainty, particularly with respect to the television segment of the industry,
was a theme that emerged strongly in the research. Factors inﬂuencing this include
the TVNZ charter and the rapid appreciation of the New Zealand dollar. A culture offreelance editors seems to characterise the television sector. Most people begin theirwork experience by working as an employee at a post-production facility before leaving
to freelance. A lack of ongoing work means, however, that when large projects ﬁnish,the market is ﬂooded. Post-production facilities are in direct competition with freelance
editors for the smaller jobs during the downtimes within the industry. One participant
described the signiﬁcant pressures felt by business owners in the industry.
What tends to happen is we’ve got a culture of freelance editors and when I’ve
had people to a certain level of skill, they tend to leave and go freelance. …What
happens is, is that those people can’t get jobs. They may be well qualiﬁed, theymaybe quite talented but there are only so many jobs and what’s happening is forthem to make ends meet, they’re doing little jobs on the side, perhaps if they’reinto animation speciﬁcally they might buy their own computer and set up fromhome. That can…in an ironic manner, undermine what we’re trying to do as a

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 9

26/01/2005 7:20:17 p.m.

62 Anne de Bruin and Ann Dupuis

company because that takes away some of those little or lower end jobs that justkeep you ticking over when you’re not doing a big job.
The lack of continuity of work can also lead to a loss of skilled people who frequently gooverseas to ﬁnd more steady or full-time employment.
It has been difﬁcult because there are some really good talents around, unfortunately
most of them go overseas because they have got to pay their rent and I hire on afreelance basis, so if I can’t get the work, they haven’t got any.
Similar to the out-ﬂow to the overseas labour market, there is also the ﬂow out of thescreen production industry to occupational labour markets within New Zealand. Thus, forexample, a person educated and trained as an architect, draughtsman, interior designer
or industrial designer might return to that occupation when the project-based, set designer
job contract is completed. There is thus high inter-occupational mobility of workers in
the industry.
Entry level workers appear to be in a very different situation however. Their uncertainty
relates to initial entry into the industry – literally getting ‘a foot in the door’.
There is a deﬁnite surplus of young people coming in, sending CV’s, writing,ringing, saying I have just done this course and I want to get into the ﬁlm industry.
It is endless, it is a tidal wave of them, and I feel sorry for them because you get
to a point where you don’t even want to see them because there is just too manyof them.
The perceived over-supply of entry-level workers has implications for training providers.
All of those interviewed mentioned that in the last decade there had been a proliferation ofcourses related to the screen production industry, resulting in large number of graduateswanting to enter the industry. It was not uncommon for some production companies tohave a person or CV per day coming through their facility. In general, the tertiary education
system was seen as a provider of entry-level people with a low skill and experience base,who still needed on-the-job training and experience. The problem for entry level workers
was well recognised. In addition, the relevance to industry of some of the skills andmaterial being taught was often questioned. There were also questions of accountability
to fee-paying students. Sectors such as post-production and animation signaled that
graduates from most institutions were being taught skill sets that were not relevant to theneeds of industry.
I do feel sorry for these people wandering in, they have got no practical experiencebut they have been in a tertiary institution for six years getting these skills and thenall of a sudden they ﬁnd that they are getting the tea or something.

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 10

26/01/2005 7:20:18 p.m.

The Screen Production Industry in New Zeland 63

Uncertainty therefore, takes many forms in this industry – uncertainty for employers withrespect to acquiring and managing projects and skill availability, for experienced workers
there is the uncertainty of where the next job is coming from and for entry level hopefuls
there is uncertainty around getting a ﬁrst job and even whether a career in the screen
production industry can be a viable option. Dex et al. (2000), commenting on uncertainty
in the British television industry also note the connection between deregulation andthe displacement of risk onto the workforce. Their study showed a range of strategies
workers adopted in response to uncertainty. These included: diversiﬁcation of their income
portfolio; collecting information; building informal contacts (a point that we will develop
in the following section); and having a spouse’s income as a buffer in down times. Their
article concludes with the salutary comment, ‘The extent to which individuals continue
to cope with uncertainty will inﬂuence the viability of the television industry’s workforce
to sustain its productive potential and the quality of the product’ (Dex et al., 2000: 304).
Such a comment appears equally applicable to the broader screen production industry
in New Zealand.
Social Capital in the Screen Production Industry
According to Bourdieu (1986: 248-249), social capital is ‘the aggregate of the actual or
potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or lessinstitutionalised relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition – or in other words,
to membership in a group – which provides each of its members with the backing of thecollectively-owned capital’. Put more simply social capital is the resources one can callon due to one’s membership of a group. Bourdieu argues that social capital operates
as a credit which group members can call on. The ‘volume’ of social capital available
to individuals depends on the size of their networks and the extent of the various formsof capital those in the networks possess. Social capital is produced through creating
and sustaining relationships and interactions with family, friends, neighbours, co-workers
and other relatively close associates. It is not necessarily consciously or intentionallypursued, although it can be. Portes (1998) deﬁnes social capital as the ability to secureresources, or beneﬁts as an outcome of people’s membership in social networks or othersocial structures.
The screen production industry research demonstrated that the exigencies of the natureof the industry were such that a ‘situation of immediacy’ regularly came into operation.
New projects were commissioned and frequently these had very little lead in time. The
problem for employers then became one of who to employ. The usual response was theselection of someone who was trusted and known to deliver. These people were chosen
on either previous knowledge and experience of the quality of their work, or on reputation.
Thus networks were vital for both the employer to secure workers and employees tosecure work. A high level of social capital is thus critical for successful involvement in
the screen production industry. The importance of on-going relationships and personal
contacts in the industry is aptly demonstrated by the following comments:

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 11

26/01/2005 7:20:18 p.m.

64 Anne de Bruin and Ann Dupuis

We all know each other, all the producers know each other well, so you can justpick up the phone and say, hey, we need an art person, who have you worked withrecently that’s good?
…it’s more down to relationships and how you’ve worked with them before –whether you work with them or not, it comes down to the most important individuals
being available – doesn’t it? ‘Cause you would never…I mean, I’d never…if for
instance Art Department was really important, we would never…you know…wewouldn’t go with somebody we hadn’t worked with or didn’t know. You simply
wouldn’t take the risk. We’d change the shoot date.
The screen production industry is one that emphasises preserving relationships and nottaking risks. Because of the short-term nature of independent contracting, one mistakeby a crew member can cost them future work with that company whereas in a standard
employment relationship, such a person might get a chance to prove themselves again
and ‘redeem’ themselves.
However, connections may also mean that there is no necessary correlation between
experience and ability:
Having said that, commercials also have what I call the director’s girlfriend
syndrome. Somebody might be highly experienced and absolutely pretty uselessat the job, but because she has got a foot in the door through her boyfriend being
the director or somebody…the agency producer’s girlfriend or something, thenshe will get given a go and she might do really well and she might be a disaster.
In the end it is always an industry about who you know.
The importance of contacts and informal recruitment processes in the industry is also
borne out by overseas research (e.g. Blair et al. 2001 and Blair 2001, where the title of
the article: ‘You’re only as good as your last job’ says a lot about how the industry works
and captures the essence of the importance of having connections within the industry.
Blair (2001), drawing on a case study where a ﬁlm was tracked through the eighteenmonths of its production, commented that for the crew she followed, family and friends
were important ‘mediators of entry, serving such functions as recommending or directlyoffering a job’ (Blair, 2001: 167). As people’s careers developed the type of contact usedchanged and colleagues or ex-colleagues became more important. However, the role ofcontacts remained pivotal to a successful career.

Conclusion
Workplace ﬂexibility has been the subject of much academic debate. On the one hand, it
is associated with many of the extreme neo-liberal reforms of the last two decades andseen as simply adding to the repertoire of practices that can be used to disadvantage

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 12

26/01/2005 7:20:18 p.m.

The Screen Production Industry in New Zeland 65

workers. Others see workplace ﬂexibility in much more positive terms. It offers workers
an opportunity for input and creativity unattainable under Fordist workplace organisationand employers the prospect of business viability in an increasingly competitive andglobalised world. The argument put forward in this article is that such macro-level polarised
positions are not especially useful in understanding the complexities of the operation ofcontemporary labour markets or many workplaces. To move beyond the current impasse
it is necessary to drill further down to examine the meso-level of workplace ﬂexibility
as it relates to particular industries as well as the more micro-levels of employer (ﬁrm)
ﬂexibility and worker ﬂexibility. While we drew attention to the latter level namely throughthe worker ﬂexibility distinction and mentioning our earlier work on varied categories of
non-standard workers and their experiences, the main focus of this paper was on themeso-level of a particular project-based industry.
The screen production industry in Auckland provides an example of a high-tech, knowledge
industry where workplace ﬂexibility is a necessary prerequisite for the industry to operate.
The industry is a varied and multifaceted, multi-sector, multi-occupation industry. It is
an industry that is highly competitive, both internationally and locally, and one that isstrongly impacted upon by such factors as macroeconomic variables, the rapid nature oftechnological change and other external factors like government incentives, tax subsidies
and funding regimes. Many of the speciﬁc features of the screen production industry
derive from it being largely project-based in nature. It is an industry where workplace
ﬂexibility goes unquestioned.
Like many such industries the peaks and troughs that come with project-based work
affect both workers and employers. Fluctuations in the demand for labour mean thatthe industry is characterised by uncertainty. In order to deal with this, workers might opt
for work overseas or move into other occupations, especially when they have anotherprofession they can call on. Alternatively, as freelancers they could compete head-on
with employers in small scale jobs. Employers seldom have full-time, permanent staff onboard, so the industry could be described as one where NSW is the norm.
The glamour of the industry means that it is extremely appealing for young people.
Yet, as the research on which this article is based demonstrated, it is very difﬁcult foryoung people, however well trained they might be, to get a foothold in the industry. The
evidence from this research showed the importance of social capital with respect tosecuring and maintaining employment. In an industry where rapid completions and highquality work are mandatory, then trust and reputation are vital. Social networks therefore
are an intrinsic feature of the screen production industry. An intriguing revelation from thisresearch therefore, is the extent to which close ties and networks are an essential part ofa post-Fordist labour market, like that of screen production. It is clear that ‘the strength of
weak ties’ (Granovetter, 1995) still has salience for the contemporary world of work.

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 13

26/01/2005 7:20:18 p.m.

66 Anne de Bruin and Ann Dupuis

References
Beck, U. (1992), Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London, Sage.
Blair, H. (2001), ‘You’re Only as Good as Your Last Job’: The Labour Process and Labour Market in the British Film Industry’,Work, Employment and Society, 15(1): 149-169.
Blair, H., Grey, S. and Randle, K. (2001), ‘Working in Film. Employment in a Project Based Industry’, Personnel Review, 30(2):170-185.
Bourdieu, P. (1986), ‘The Forms of Capital’, in J. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of
Education, New York, Greenwood: 241-258.
Burgess, J. and Watts, M. (1999), Labour Market Reform. The End of the Standard Employment Model and Workforce Polarisationin Australia. Paper presented at the 21st Conference of the International Working Party on Labour Market Segmentation, Bremen,
September 9th to 11th.
Carnoy, M. (1999), The Family, Flexible Work and Social Cohesion at Risk. International Labour Review, 138(4): 411-429.
Casey, B., Metcalfe, H. and Millward, N. (1997) Employer’s Use of Flexible Labour, London, Policy Studies Institute.
de Bruin, A., Dupuis, A. and Spoonley, P. (2004), ‘Introduction’, in P. Spoonley, A. Dupuis and A. de Bruin (eds), Work and Working
in Twenty-ﬁrst Century New Zealand, Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 9-14.
de Bruin, A. and Hanrahan, S. (2003), The Screen Production Industry in the Auckland Region: Towards Understanding Human
Capacity Issues. A Report Prepared for the Auckland Regional Economic Development Strategy. ISBN: 1-877355-00-3
Deeks, J. and Rasmussen, E. (2002), Employment Relations in New Zealand, Auckland, Prentice Hall.
Dex, S., Willis, J., Paterson, R. and Sheppard, E. (2000), ‘Freelance Workers and Contract Uncertainty: The Effects of Contractual
Changes in the Television Industry’, Work, Employment and Society, 14(2): 283-305.
Easton, B. (1997), In Stormy Seas: the Post-war New Zealand Economy, Dunedin, University of Otago Press.
Firkin, P., McLaren, E., Spoonley, P., de Bruin, A., Dupuis, A. and Perera, H. (2003), Non-Standard Work: Alternative Working
Arrangements Amongst Knowledge Workers – An Expanded Analysis Across Two Regions: Hawkes Bay and Auckland, LabourMarket Dynamics Research Programme. Research Report Series 2003, Massey University, Albany and Palmerston North.
Granovetter, M. (1995), Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Harbridge, R. (ed.) (1993), Employment Contracts: New Zealand Experiences, Wellington, Victoria University Press.
Kalleberg, A. (2000), ‘Non-Standard Employment Relations: Part-time, Temporary and Contract Work’, Annual Review ofSociology, 26: 341-365.
Kalleberg, A. (2003), ‘Flexible Firms and Labor Market Segmentation: Effects of Workplace Restructuring on Jobs and Workers’,
Work and Occupations, 30(2): 154-175.
Kelsey, J. (1997), The New Zealand Experiment: A World Model for Structural Adjustment, Auckland, Auckland University Press.
Littleton, S., Arthur, M. and Rousseau, D. (2000), ‘The Future of Boundaryless Careers’, in A. Collin and R. Young (eds), The
Future of Career. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Macky, K. (2004), ‘Organisational Downsizing and Redundancies: The New Zealand Workers’ Experience’, New Zealand Journalof Employment Relations, 29(1): 63-87.
McLaren, E., Firkin, P., Spoonley, P., Dupuis, A., de Bruin, A. and Inkson, K. (2004) At the Margins: Contingency, Precariousness
and Non-Standard Work. Research Report No 1, Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme, Albany and Palmerston
North.
Mitchie, J. and Sheehan, M. (2003), ‘Labour Market Deregulation, ‘Flexibility’ and Innovation’, Cambridge Journal of Economics,
27(1): 123-143.
Mitchie, J. and Sheehan-Quinn, M. (2001), ‘Labour Market Flexibility, Human Resource Management and Corporate Performance’,
British Journal of Management, 12(4): 287-306.
Piore, M. and Sabel, F. (1984), The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity, New York, Basic Books.
Portes, A. (1998), ‘Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology’, Annual Review of Sociology, 24: 1-24.
Rossiter, G. and McMorran, F. (2003), The Law and Alternative Working Arrangements, Working Paper No. 10, Labour Market
Dynamics Research Programme, Massey University, Albany and Palmerston North.
Smith, V. (1997), ‘’New Forms of Work Organization’, Annual Review of Sociology, 23: 315-319.
Zeytinoglu, I. and Muteshi, J. (1999), ‘Changing Work Relationships. Enacting Gender, Race/Ethnicity and Economic Class’, in I.
Zeytinoglu (ed.), Changing Work Relationships in Industrialised Economies, Amsterdam, John Benjamin’s Publishing Company.

5 de Bruin & Dupuis 14 Jan 05.indd 14

26/01/2005 7:20:18 p.m.

Multiple Job Holding 67

Multiple Job Holding in the Agriculture Sector
NICK TAYLOR, WAYNE MCCLINTOCK, JAMES BAINES* & JAMES NEWELL**

Abstract
New proﬁling based on the 2001 Census supports research in the 1990s which examinedfarm family pluriactivity in New Zealand, showing multiple job holding is a key strategy
used by farm families to support their household and farm incomes. Moreover, a studyof 60 farm people with multiple jobs in Ashburton District indicates that the motivation forfarm women and men to work off the farm may be stronger than ever, despite relatively
high levels of farm income in recent years. In addition to economic reasons, multiple job
holding is driven by personal fulﬁlment, and the entrepreneurial ethos of farm families.

Introduction
Research in the mid 1990s examined the importance of pluriactivity as an economic
strategy commonly pursued by farm households. In their study of off-farm employment
in three districts of the South Island, Taylor and McCrostie Little (1995) considered thecharacter and dynamics of multiple job holding (MJH) amongst farm families, including its
impact on the family members, individual workers, the farm business and the community.
That research identiﬁed the importance of on-farm, non-agricultural enterprises to farm
families, either due to the distance from labour markets making it relatively difﬁcult forsome to participate in off-farm employment, and as an expression of entrepreneurial
creativity to run a business apart from the farm itself. Subsequently, Taylor et al. (1997)
completed their research on alternative farm enterprises, conﬁrming and extending theearlier evidence of pluriactivity, identiﬁed by Moran et al. (1989), Benediktsson et al.
(1990) and Le Heron (1991).
The research showed multiple job holding has become an important source of income
for farm families facing cyclical commodity prices, periodic rises in farm input prices* Nick Taylor, Wayne McClintock and James Baines are from Taylor Baines and Associates, Christchurch, New Zealand.
** James Newell is from Monitoring Evaluation Research Associates, Wellington.
The research programme is funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, contract TBAX0204. We
acknowledge Nicola Robertson’s considerable input to the ﬁeld research.
This article draws on presentations to the Agrifoods X Conference, Akaroa, 21-24 April 2003 and the Annual Conferenceof the New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, Blenheim, 25-26 June 2004.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 1

26/01/2005 8:48:18 p.m.

68 Nick Taylor, Wayne McClintock, James Baines and James Newelland climatic events such as prolonged drought. Multiple job holding is also evident in
the wider rural economy, including meat processing workers (Shirley, et al., 2001) andspeciﬁcally-skilled, casual, mobile, workers such as shearers and ski instructors, some ofwhom work in more than one location internationally (Hunt, 1996). Indeed it reﬂects thegeneral importance of non-standard work across society (de Bruin and Depuis, 2004).
This article reports results from a programme of research on multiple job holding in New
Zealand, with agriculture one of the sectors examined. The research investigates multiple
job holding in rural New Zealand using census data, and discusses the implications ofmultiple job holding by farmers and the possibility of changes in attitudes towards off farmwork since the 1990’s.
The research programme provides knowledge about the way individuals, families andcommunities are adapting to social and economic change through multiple job holding.
The research began in 2001 and has two main objectives. The ﬁrst objective is developing
a proﬁle of multiple job holding in New Zealand over recent years based initially on 2001
Census data for factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, work-force status and occupation,plus a detailed analysis of changes 1981 to 2001, and comparisons to other ofﬁcial
statistics including the 1998/99 Time Use Survey and the quarterly Household Labour
Force Survey. The second objective is identifying the factors which encourage or inhibit
multiple job holding, and determining the impacts of multiple job holding on individuals,
families and communities through a series of 180 in-depth interviews, with three sectors
covered in a ﬁrst round in 2003-4: farming, café and restaurant workers, and healthprofessionals.

Proﬁle of multiple job holding for rural areas and farmers
This section provides results from the national proﬁle of multiple job holding for rural
areas and farmers, using data from the 2001 Census. The proﬁle shows that a relatively
high proportion of farmers hold multiple jobs, one of which includes their work on farm.
Proﬁling multiple job holding from 2001 Census data
Although census data covers the entire working population (1,727,271 in 2001), providing
accuracy for detailed analysis and cross-tabulations, there are limitations due to thequestions asked, including those about work. The central question for this research is “In
the 7 days that ended on ..., did you have one job or more than one job?”. While details
are sought on the nature of the main job, no information is asked about the additionaljobs (including unpaid work for a family business or farm). So if this work is not identiﬁedby farmers as their ﬁrst job, it means the occupational and industry data (assembled on
the basis of the ﬁrst job) can understate multiple job holding for farm men or women forwhom work on the farm is their second job.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 2

26/01/2005 8:48:18 p.m.

Multiple Job Holding 69

A further limitation of the Census question arises if the additional job took place outside
the period of a week. Other research (Taylor and McCrostie Little, 1995) shows thatseasonal work is an important dimension of rural multiple job holding. So if this work is
not taking place at the time of the Census the data further understates the multiple job
holding of farmers.
Another issue for proﬁling multiple job holding from ofﬁcial statistics is the amount of casual
employment taking place outside the formal economy, particularly in the rural economy.
Multiple job holders may be reluctant to report cash income from casual employment forreasons related to tax, child support and welfare beneﬁts (Averett, 2001).
Nonetheless, the 2001 Census data provide a useful baseline proﬁle of the level anddistribution of multiple job holding in rural New Zealand (Baines, et al. 2003). The
baseline proﬁle provides information on the demographic characteristics of the individuals
involved, their geographic locations and other empirical guidance for the research.
Incidence of multiple job holding in rural areas
Analysis of the 2001 Census found the average incidence of multiple job holding acrossthe entire working population was 10.1%. This ﬁgure establishes multiple job holding asa signiﬁcant element of New Zealand working life, setting a reference level for comparing
multiple job holding rates across the working population.
Rural areas stand out for relatively high rates of multiple job holding, with an increase foreach ofﬁcial statistical category from main urban area to rural area (Table 1).
Table 1 Incidence of MJH for rural to urban statistical areas

Rates of multiple job holding are particularly high for rural statistical areas, with thehighest rural areas and the district they are located in shown in Table 2. The pattern ofhigh multiple job holding in these rural areas reﬂects the predominance of the agricultural
sector in their workforces. It is noticeable that women typically record higher rates thanmen, in some cases 30-50% higher.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 3

26/01/2005 8:48:18 p.m.

70 Nick Taylor, Wayne McClintock, James Baines and James Newell

Table 2 High incidences of MJH in rural areas

Incidence of multiple job holding by industrial classiﬁcation occupational group
Analysis of 2001 Census data by industry classiﬁcation and occupational group shows
agricultural sectors lead the incidence of multiple job holding (Table 3). As for rural areas
generally, the multiple job holding rate in farming is consistently higher for women thanmen, while the opposite is true for the more urban-dominated industries.
Table 3 Incidence of high rates of MJH by industrial classiﬁcation

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 4

26/01/2005 8:48:18 p.m.

Multiple Job Holding 71

Analysis by farming-related occupational groups (Table 4) supports the ﬁndings from theanalysis by industry sector, showing high incidences for the farmer occupational groups
and also for women.
Table 4: Incidence of MJH by highest farming occupational groups

Inﬂuence of workforce status on multiple job holding by farmers
The analysis also provided data on the incidence of multiple job holding in the larger
farmer occupational groups for full-time workers and part-time workers by sex (Table 5).
For females the incidence of multiple job holding in these sectors is higher for full-timethan part-time workers. For males the incidence is higher for part-time workers in thebeef and sheep sectors, but not for deer farming. It should be remembered here thatthese results are for individuals declaring farming as their main job. The results for those
who have farming as their second job remains a major gap in the ofﬁcial statistics.
Table 5: Incidence of high MJH by larger farming sectors & workforce status

Note: F = female, M = male, PT = part time, FT = full time.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 5

26/01/2005 8:48:20 p.m.

72 Nick Taylor, Wayne McClintock, James Baines and James Newell

Other rural occupations
Other rural occupations were examined for rates of multiple job holding, noting someof these people would have had farming as an (unstated) second job. For agricultural
consultants, the overall rate was 26.5%. The highest rates are amongst agricultural
consultants who are full-time, self employed, and females (28.9%) are more likely thanmales (25.6%) to hold more than one job in this category.
For the livestock buyer occupational group, the rate with more than one job is 28.3% andmales make up 97% of the group. Similarly, the stock and station agents occupationalgroup has 31.9% with more than one job and males make up 95% of this group. There
are also relatively high multiple job holding rates indicated amongst groups such as self
employed musterers, nursery growers and workers, and self employed grape growers
and wine makers.

Motivations and effects of multiple job holding
The article next examines some of the factors which encourage or inhibit multiple job
holding by farmers, and impacts of multiple job holding on individuals, farm families andrural communities.
MethodThe analysis draws on a purposive sample of 60 farm men and women interviewed in
the Ashburton District during 2003, identiﬁed through farm directories, local contacts andsnow balling. The high rates of multiple job holding amongst farmers made it relatively
easy to recruit individual for these interviews. The sex breakdown of respondents was
26 males (43%) and 34 females (57%).
The respondents came from a range of farm sizes, with 65% of them coming fromproperties between 100 and 400ha. Ninety-two percent of the people interviewed said
that they were owners or part owners of the farming operations. A third indicated thatthey were the person most involved in operating the farm business. Allowing multiple
responses, the farms of the respondents produced crops (42), sheep (34), beef (30),dairy (11), pigs (6), deer (5) and horticulture (2).
The principal deﬁnition of multiple job holding used in these interviews was paid or unpaid
work for more than one employer or family business or farm in the course of the mostrecent week. Those who did not meet this criterion were screened out of the research.
The interviews were based on a comprehensive schedule combining closed and open
questions and took an hour to one and a half hours to complete.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 6

26/01/2005 8:48:20 p.m.

Multiple Job Holding 73

Types of jobs and hours of work
Respondents identiﬁed a wide range of work undertaken in addition to farming (Table 6).
Most (46) indicated their main job was the same as their main occupation. For the other14, their occupation was the same as their second job and for nine of these this was
farming. Twenty ﬁve of the respondents who reported that their second job was a farmer
or farm worker were women, and 19 were men.
Table 6: Main occupation, main job and other jobs of respondents

Over three-ﬁfths (63%) of respondents worked thirty hours or more in their main job
during the most recent working week. Half (48%) worked less than 10 hours in theirsecond job, and 11 of the 12 respondents with three jobs worked less than 10 hours intheir third job. The average number of hours respondents worked were 36.8 for the mainjob, 10.1 for the second, and 4.2 for the third. The average time they worked for all theirjobs during that week was 47.7 hours. A ﬁfth of the respondents worked less than the
full-time equivalent of 30 hours that week, while 35% worked for more than 59 hours.
At least two-thirds of respondents (65%) usually worked for ﬁve or more days per week
in their main jobs. Only 30% of respondents reported that they usually worked for ﬁve
days or more in their second job, while a third (33%) did so for less than ﬁve days. Some
indicated that the number of days they worked in their additional job varied according to
the demand for their labour.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 7

26/01/2005 8:48:20 p.m.

74 Nick Taylor, Wayne McClintock, James Baines and James Newell

To obtain a broader picture beyond the “last week” deﬁnition, respondents were asked
about additional jobs they had over the past month and the past year. Other jobs in thepast month included bookkeeper (3), trustee (2), director, repairs and maintenance ofinvestment property, cosmetic sales representative, safari guide and colour sorter. For
the past year, respondents were asked more broadly whether they undertook any paidor unpaid current work that they considered to be “a job” that they had not previously
mentioned. Forty-two of them described a broad range of activities which they considered
to be “a job” (Table 7).
Voluntary work for schools, sports clubs, community organisations and churches
comprised almost two-thirds (62%) of activities undertaken by the 42 respondents inthe previous year that they deﬁned as a “job”. These ﬁndings illustrate that multiple
job holders in rural areas make a signiﬁcant contribution to the social capital of theircommunities in addition to their paid work.
Table 7: Other activities over the last year self-deﬁned as a “job”

Note: others were Professional training & education 2, Craft sales 2, Home stay for Asian students 2, Decorating house 1

Forty-nine respondents also commented on other activities they spent a lot of time on(other than “jobs”). These activities included household work (37 respondents) andchildcare (33 respondents). Here again, respondents (30) identiﬁed voluntary work,
sports and other leisure activities they undertake.
They also described how they manage to balance these activities with their work
responsibilities. While one respondent remarked that the lifestyle “all seems to fall into
place”, another, acknowledging high stress levels, stated “[We] both agree it is not living”.
Others noted achieving a balance between their work and personal/family lives was an
ongoing issue: “[I] can’t do everything”. Several mentioned that they needed to organiseand plan ahead to achieve balance in their lives.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 8

26/01/2005 8:48:20 p.m.

Multiple Job Holding 75

Overall, the research found that multiple job holding helped personal relationships,
friendships and involvement in ongoing education, and hindered care or support ofother family members, housework, health and ﬁtness or involvement in organised sport,
entertainment or leisure, and involvement in community activities. Some spoke about
the positive features of enjoyment, diversity, stimulation, freedom of choice and ﬂexibility
from holding multiple jobs. The remainder mentioned negative effects including tiredness,rural isolation, increased stress levels and little opportunity for time off. “[It’s] the hours
that kill you really” said a spray contractor and farmer working 70 hours per week. “Thelifestyle is more of a life sentence than a lifestyle” commented an art teacher and farmer
working 62 hours per week. “I don’t think I’m a boring person to live with or be with, but
perhaps I’m too busy for family and friends sometimes. I miss them,” noted a primaryteacher, farmer and company director working 65 hours per week.
In relation to the impacts of multiple job holding on the rural community, respondents
noted that there is a reduced pool of volunteers available in rural areas. Voluntaryorganisations are struggling and often run by older people and multiple job holding
doesn’t help. For example, one respondent had to relinquish her sporting activities when
she took an extra job, while another belonged to 13 different committees before a returnto the paid workforce in addition to farming meant she had to resign from them.
Multiple job holding by farmers is longer term
The research shows that multiple job holding amongst farmers is more a long-termfeature of farm households than supposed by observers in the aftermath of the 1980s“farm crisis”. Forty nine respondents (82%) indicated they had held more than one job
beyond the previous year. Two ﬁfths of the 49 respondents had been multiple job holders
for 10 years or more and the average time they had held more than one job was 8.5
years. Moreover, their experience of multiple job holding showed a third (37%) had held
three or four jobs at a time for a period of their working life.
Just under half (47%) of respondents had held their main job and 62% their second job
for at least 10 years. The average length of time respondents had worked in these jobs
were 10.4 years for the main job, 13.6 years for the second, and 10.8 years for the third(Table 8).

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 9

26/01/2005 8:48:20 p.m.

76 Nick Taylor, Wayne McClintock, James Baines and James Newell

Table 8: Years worked by respondents in their main and other jobs

Note: (1) The two respondents who did not state the length of time they had worked in their second job had not been
employed in that activity during their most recent working week.

Further analysis by sex and age showed 62% of the men had spent ten years and overin their main jobs compared with 35% of the women. However, 68% of the women were
employed in their second job for ten years and more compared to 46% of the men. This
contrast between the main and second jobs can be explained by many of the women
having a main job in a career outside the agricultural sector (e.g teacher, nurse) thatcomplemented their work on farm (their second job).
Another question conﬁrmed the longer-term nature of multiple job holding. Over half the
respondents (54%) expected to remain multiple job holders for more than three years,
and a third (33%) until they retire. Further analysis by sex and age showed younger
respondents of both sexes expected to be multiple job holders for the medium and longterms.
Reasons for multiple job holding by farmers
While in the 1980s and early 1990s farm men and women appear to have moved into
multiple job holding largely because they had to, this research shows that the reasons
are now more complex. The respondents indicated they hold multiple jobs by choicerather than necessity. When asked a closed question about their reasons for having
more than one job, two-thirds of respondents (67%) said that it was because they wanted
to, while just over a quarter (27%) acknowledged that there were elements of choiceand necessity that inﬂuenced them to do so. Only 3% said they held more than one job
simply because they had to.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 10

26/01/2005 8:48:20 p.m.

Multiple Job Holding 77

Nonetheless, economic reasons predominated for holding multiple jobs and there are
implications for farm household ﬁnances and farm ﬁnances. Asked about their reasonsfor having more than job over time, the most frequently cited reasons (31) were the needfor extra or regular income. “Money”, “ﬁnancial reasons” and “income” were keywords
frequently used by respondents. As one remarked, the extra money from a second job“got us through the hot patches”, and another, “I want to get ahead, [it’s] easier while you
are young and ﬁt”. While several explained that income from the farm was insufﬁcient
to sustain their standard of living. Those who explained they had another job for lifestylereasons either wanted to broaden their interests by having a non farming occupation, or
had purchased a farm so they could enjoy a rural lifestyle. Others saw their non-farm job
enabled them to continue or develop a career, “I just love my teaching” and provided asocial outlet, “I’d go nuts if I was at home all day”.
Respondents were asked to indicate how their other jobs contributed to their farmbusiness or household, and it is evident this contribution is complex. More than anythingelse, the income from additional jobs was used to maintain the household’s lifestyle or to
pay for extras to enhance that lifestyle. By comparison, its contribution to farm ﬁnancesand farm succession was seen as relatively minor. Only 11 respondents indicated that
their other job was essential for the farm ﬁnances, and another two noted that their otherjobs had contributed to that purpose in the past. Respondents who indicated that theiradditional income was “very important” explained it in terms of the contribution the nonfarm job(s) made to ensuring economic survival,“Keeps us ﬂoating”, “Without it we’d beon the dole”, and “[The] farm is not making enough to sustain our lifestyle as we live at
the moment”. The income helped them achieve ﬁnancial goals (e.g. repayment of debt
and saving for retirement and other purposes) and provided cash for essential household
expenditure. Respondents who rated their income as “important” considered that itprovided money for less essential items of household expenditure,“We eat out, which wenever did before.”, and reduced the need to draw funds from the farm. The remainder,
who felt their income was of lesser importance to the household, were more dependent
on the farm for their livelihood. They were more likely to describe the contribution of
their income as providing luxury items,“play money”, “icing on the cake”, rather thannecessary for the household’s survival.
Asked for their views about what leads to multiple job holding in the farming sector,
respondents identiﬁed a range of factors. Although economic factors predominated,personal and social factors were also signiﬁcant. Many spoke of a need to broaden
their outlook, the interest and challenge of farming, or an opportunity to use their skills
in another occupation, for “plain self satisfaction, self worth”. Others considered thatwomen in particular worked off farm to have social contact with other people: “Good forfarm wives to get off farm for social factor”. A wide range of individual beneﬁts identiﬁed
included social contact with other people, personal growth and stimulation, a sense ofsatisfaction and self-worth, “To be a valued member of society and feeling I have something
to contribute”, ﬂexibility in hours of work, ﬁnancial independence and a balanced lifestyle.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 11

26/01/2005 8:48:20 p.m.

78 Nick Taylor, Wayne McClintock, James Baines and James Newell

For some people these beneﬁts were the result of a deliberate choice to have more than
one job, but for others they were the outcome of other motivations: a woman who valued
her contacts with a wide range of people observed “[I] don’t consciously go out and get
more than one job”.
The general view was that employment was relatively easy to ﬁnd in the Mid Canterbury
area. Fifty-seven percent of respondents considered it was very easy or easy to obtainwork in their main job and only 22% thought it was difﬁcult or very difﬁcult. Comments
made by respondents indicated that generally there were plenty of jobs available fornurses and care givers, “In rural areas they are desperate for registered staff”, teachersand early childhood workers, rural bankers, spray applicators and farm workers. Those
who said it was difﬁcult or very difﬁcult to ﬁnd work in their non-farming job explained itin terms of their age, lack of experience, or the very specialist nature of the occupation.
Eight women married to farmers observed that this relationship was the crucial factor in
their having a job on a farm. As one remarked, “all you have to do is marry a farmer - itcomes with the territory”.
Over four-ﬁfths of respondents said that changes at their place of work in the farming
sector had affected their jobs. The introduction of new technology in the form of tractors,
machinery, animal health and breeding practices, irrigation systems, improved seedvarieties, and the use of computers for production and administration has reduced
the amount of physical labour required on farms. There has been a general trend forpermanent farm workers to be replaced by casual and contract labour. Many respondents
also mentioned that their farm had either modiﬁed its production system (e.g. by growing
more specialised crops, leasing land for dairy grazing) or converted to another system(e.g. from sheep to mixed cropping). Respondents also noted the inﬂuence of increased
government regulation and associated paper work, and external economic factors, onchanges at their workplaces.
Respondents were asked to identify changes in their personal and family circumstancesthat affected their decisions to hold more than one job. The inﬂuence of the family life
cycle is clearly evident as shown by the high frequency of responses such as starting afamily, starting a long-term relationship/getting married, children’s education and planningfor retirement. Further analysis of these responses by sex and age (Table 9) reveals thatchanging a place of residence, starting a family, commencing a long term relationship or
marriage, children’s education and other family ﬁnances were more inﬂuential factors in
the decisions of women in holding their current jobs than was the case for men. Men weremore likely than women to be inﬂuenced by tertiary study or obtaining new qualiﬁcations
when they made their decisions to take multiple jobs. However, there seemed to be
no difference between the two sexes with respect to the inﬂuence of home ownership,
mortgage or planning for retirement on their decisions.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 12

26/01/2005 8:48:21 p.m.

Multiple Job Holding 79

Table 9: Effect of changes in personal or family circumstances on decisions tohold multiple jobs by sex and age of respondents

In comments about the personal and family circumstances that inﬂuenced them to holdmultiple jobs, one woman recalled the criticism she received from farming neighbours
when she returned to nursing some 20 years before, and added that nowadays working
off the farm is the accepted norm and they seek her advice on health matters. Other
women spoke of returning to a previous occupation, changing from part-time to fulltime work, or quitting their off-farm jobs as they juggled their careers with their family
commitments.

Discussion
The ﬁndings from the 2001 Census and interviews show multiple job holding is a featureof farming life. Multiple job holding by farm men and women appears more established
as a long-term feature of farm households than suggested by observers in the aftermathof the 1980s “farm crisis”. The New Zealand research conﬁrms and extends theinternational evidence of farm pluriactivity, including the impacts of rural restructuring,
successive climatic events and commodity price cycles. The research contributes tocritical reviews of family farming and sustainable farming by rural sociologists, reﬂecting
an emerging orientation towards ecological and global perspectives, and applied, multidisciplinary research (Fuller, 1990).
Farm families have diversiﬁed their sources of income from the core farm business
operation to include off-farm employment and alternative enterprises (Benediktsson,
et al., 1990; Fairweather and Gilmore, 1992; Le Heron, 1991; Rhodes and Journeaux,

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 13

26/01/2005 8:48:21 p.m.

80 Nick Taylor, Wayne McClintock, James Baines and James Newell1995). This pluriactivity helps maintain farm household incomes, defends farm equity
and provides greater opportunity for retirement and family succession (Taylor and
McCrostie Little, 1995; Taylor et al., 1997). Benediktsson et al. (1990) argued off farmwork has been a feature of rural occupations since pioneer times. Le Heron (1991)
recognised, however, that a trend to greater off farm income is part of a general societal
trend towards dual incomes, casualisation of work, and individualisation. It is probable
farmers are moving closer to urban society in their social and economic aspirations.
For example, several farm women mentioned working to pay for the education of theirchildren, or to develop their full potential, as primary motivations for having an extra job
and source of income. However, the high levels of multiple job holding and the longhours worked suggest that multiple job holding may have reached sustainable limits
as an adaptive strategy for managing the risks inherent in farming, and increasing farmhousehold income.
Both earlier research (Taylor and McCrostie Little, 1995; Taylor et al., 1997) and the newinterview data show there are gender differences in farm household labour and multiple
job holding. However, farm women, especially those involved in “doing the books”,
appear to have an increasing role in ﬁnancial planning and decision making (McCrostie
Little and Taylor, 1998). Furthermore, in addition to their reproductive and farm roles,
and other employment, farm women continue to make an important input to community
life. The 2001 Census data show while men and women are heavily involved in multiple
job holding, generally women are more involved than men. The non-farm employment offarm men is dominated by work in the agricultural sector including agricultural contracting
and truck driving. For farm women, occupations in education, health and administration
predominate.
The research shows there is an important relationship between the non-farm work offarm women, the family life cycle and farm development. Women noted how they had
developed, and in some cases redeveloped, their careers outside farming, citing examplesof re-entering the workforce in various ways, including voluntary work, relief teaching andpart-time work. They emphasised how they were using their qualiﬁcations, beneﬁting
from their social contact outside the farm and strengthening their personal development.
Many then clearly develop professional careers and some attain management levels.
Fewer farm men take a career path off the farm, and generally these are males withtertiary qualiﬁcations. Despite their careers, however, women continue to work on theirfarms. These ﬁndings are consistent with overseas studies. Shortall (1992:438-439)
found that women considered their off-farm employment provided a means to increase
their independence, raise their status, and give them a sense of personal identity.
There is a complex relationship between off-farm income and farm ﬁnances. Off-farmincome used by the household allows farm income to be ploughed back into the farm.
So both should be considered as components of total income and expenditure by a farm
family. Multiple job holding is a ﬂexible mechanism that helps farm families adjust to

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 14

26/01/2005 8:48:21 p.m.

Multiple Job Holding 81

changes in the economic environment and minimises the impact of downturns in farmincome (Weersink et al., 1998).
While in the 1980s and early 1990s farm men and women appear to have moved into
multiple jobs largely because they had to, this new research shows that the reasons
are now more complex. After a period of signiﬁcant debt on some farms, Taylor and
McCrostie Little (1995) found for nearly two thirds of the off-farm employment households
interviewed back then, the additional income was either very important or important totheir farm ﬁnances. The respondents in 2003 hold multiple jobs more by choice thannecessity. They identiﬁed a broad range of personal, social and economic factors behind
their jobs, and although economic factors predominated, personal and social factors
were also signiﬁcant. Whatever the ﬁnancial position of farming, multiple job holding is
now a feature of the rural scene.
There have been considerable changes in farming community attitudes to non-farm
employment since the farm “crisis” of the mid to late 1980s. Before then both men
and women met resistance to working off their farm. By the 1980s it was regarded as
acceptable to work to “save” the farm, and for younger farm couples with high debt loading
it was the only feasible option to maintain household incomes (Taylor and McCrostie
Little, 1995). Today, multiple job holding is widely accepted, no matter the reasons for it,with those interviewed noting the support there now is in the farming community.

Conclusions
National statistics combined with in-depth analysis based on personal interviews has built
on previous research to provide a picture of changes in the patterns of work amongst
farm men and women. The interviews provided some understanding of the dynamics
of multiple job holding for individuals, households and communities. Mid Canterbury
has a range of farm sizes and types, with an emphasis on cropping, however, theﬁndings from interviews in one district should be treated with caution in terms of national
representativeness.
While off-farm work may no longer be driven by the need to sustain farm income, the need
many women have for non-farm work may be stronger than ever. Urban and rural society
are no longer distinct social contexts, as telecommunications, mass media, improved
road networks and modern transportation have all reduced the distinctions between town
and country lifestyles. Farming is increasingly seen as a business that needs expert
management as well as basic farming knowledge, differing little structurally from manyurban based businesses with an export or market component (McCrostie Little and Taylor,1997). Universally women today expect to continue their careers throughout their family
lives – its no different for women on the land (McCrostie Little and Taylor, 1998). Nor
was the continued careers of farm women deemed remarkable by the farm community in
2003. Continuing their farm work has not dissuaded women from non-farm careers.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 15

26/01/2005 8:48:21 p.m.

82 Nick Taylor, Wayne McClintock, James Baines and James NewellWith acceptance of the normality of pluriactivity by farm businesses and households, theresearch focus falls on the extent and type of non-farm jobs, and the types and styles of
non-farm businesses, rather than the over riding necessity to provide secondary income
for survival. Of particular interest is the interdependence of the core farm business,and personal, family and community life for multiple job holders. Key questions remain,
including the effect of emerging, less gendered farm business management structures on
the employment options of women, and comparing the type and amount of work by men
and women over family and farm development cycles.

References
Averett, S. L. (2001), “Moonlighting: multiple motives and gender differences”, Applied Economics, 33 (11).
James Baines and Jamie Newell (2003), A proﬁle of multiple job holding in New Zealand based on 2001 Census data,
Multiple Job Holding in New Zealand Working paper No. 2 (FRST Research Project TBAX0204), Taylor Baines andAssociates, Christchurch.
Benediktsson, Karl; Manning, Sarah; Moran, Warren and Anderson, Grant (1990), Participation of Raglan County farmhouseholds in the labour force, Occasional Publication 27, Department of Geography, University of Auckland.
De Bruin, Anne and Ann Dupuis (2004), Work-life balance?: insights from non-standard work, New Zealand Journal of
Employment Relations, 29(1): 21-37.
Fairweather, John R. and Gilmore, Soraiya (1993), Farming in Hurunui and Clutha Counties: current attitudes andpractices compared to survey results in 1986, Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit, Research Report 219,
Lincoln University.
Fuller, Anthony M. (Ed.) (1990), Pluriactivity and rural change in Western Europe, Journal of Rural Studies, 6(4).
Hunt, Robin (1996), The brave new ﬂexible workplace world, People & Performance, Sept., 7-12.
Le Heron, Richard (1991), Perspectives on pluriactivity, In Margaret Alston (Ed.), Family Farming, Australia and New
Zealand, Key Papers No. 2, Centre for Rural Social Research, Wagga Wagga: 24-32.
McCrostie Little, Heather and C Nicholas Taylor (1997), Oliver Twist Dared: The importance of multiple sources ofincome for farm families, Proceedings of the Conference of the New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics
Society, Agribusiness Research Unit Discussion Paper 145, Lincoln University.
McCrostie Little, Heather and Nick Taylor (1998), Continuity and change - New Zealand farm women, Chapter 12 in
Rosemary Dy Plessis and Geoff Fougere (Eds.), He Pounamu Korero: Politics, Policy and Practice, Essays in Honour ofBill Willmott, Sociology Department, University of Canterbury.
McLaren, Eva (2001), The growing insecurity of work, Working Paper No. 5, Labour Market Dynamics Research
Programme, Massey University, Albany and Palmerston North.
Moran, Warren; Blunden Greg and Gorenwood, Julie (1992), The role of family farming in agrarian change, Manuscript,
Department of Geography, University of Auckland.
Rhodes, David and Journeaux, Philip (1995), Off-farm income survey: 1992/93 ﬁnancial year, MAF Policy TechnicalPaper 95/6, Rural Resources Unit, Wellington.
Shirley, Ian; Patrick Firkin; Rolf Cremer; Philip Dewe; Chris Eichbaum; Anne de Bruin; Ann Dupuis and Paul Spoonley(2001), Transitions in the Hawkes bay labour market: unpaid work and paid work, Research Report Series, LabourMarket Dynamics Research Programme, Massey University, Albany and Palmerston North.
Shortall, S (1992), Power analysis and farm wives, Sociologica Ruralis, 32(4): 431-451.
Taylor, Nick and Little, Heather McCrostie (1995), Means of Survival: a study of Off-farm Employment in New Zealand,
Taylor Baines and Associates, Christchurch.
Taylor Nick; Little, Heather McCrostie, and McClintock, Wayne (1997), Entrepreneurship in New Zealand farming: astudy of farms with alternative enterprises, MAF Policy Technical Paper 97/7, Ministry of Agriculture, Wellington.
Weersink, Alfon; Nicholson, Charles and Weerhewa, Jeeveka (1998), Multiple job holdings among dairy farm families in
New York and Ontario, Agricultural Economics, 18: 127-143.

6 Taylor 26 Jan 05.indd 16

26/01/2005 8:48:21 p.m.

Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand 83

Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand:
Annual Review for 2003
ROBYN MAY, PAT WALSH AND CATHERINE OTTO*Introduction
This paper reports the results of Victoria University’s Industrial Relations Centre’s surveyof trade union membership for 2003 in New Zealand. The survey carries on from ourearlier surveys, conducted by the Industrial Relations Centre since 1991. As with allreports since the enactment of the Employment Relations Act (ERA), there has also
been an increase in union membership in 2003. Union membership for the year to
December 2003 rose 1.5 per cent, with the number of unions rising to 181. Union density
is 21.4 per cent, unchanged from 2002 (both ﬁgures have been recently revised from thatreported earlier, as a result of a population rebase by Statistics New Zealand). Thus,
union recruitment has not been able to keep pace with strong labour force growth over
the year.

Methodology
When the Employment Contracts Act 1991 (ECA) ended the practice of union registration,
it not only removed the distinct legal status of trade unions but it also brought to an end
the ofﬁcial collection of data on trade union membership. In the absence of ofﬁcial data,
the Industrial Relations Centre at Victoria University of Wellington began to undertakevoluntary surveys of trade unions in December 1991, and these surveys continue tothe current date. Notwithstanding their voluntary status, the surveys have always had ahigh compliance rate. In addition to information on aggregate membership, our surveys
have also sought information on gender and industry breakdown (at two digit industry
level) and organisational afﬁliations. We have recently included an additional questionon whether unions collect statistics on the ethnic background of their membership.
The return to ofﬁcial collection of data on union membership began in 2001 with the
ERA’s requirement that unions submit an annual return of members to the Registrar of* Robyn May, Pat Walsh and Catherine Otto are Senior Research Fellow; Professor of Human Resource Management
and Industrial Relations; and Project coordinator, respectively, all of the Industrial Relations Centre, Victoria Universityof Wellington.
This study is part of a larger project which receives funding from the Public Good Science Fund administered by theFoundation for Research, Science and Technology (Contract no. Vic X0301). The authors are grateful to all the unionofﬁcials who assisted with this research.

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 1

26/01/2005 7:22:44 p.m.

84 Robyn May, Pat Walsh and Catherine Otto

Unions at 1 March of each year. In 2002, the Department made public for the ﬁrst timein over a decade, the membership of each of the registered unions, and has continued to
do so each year since (DOL 2002, 2003, 2004).
For our survey this year we included only those unions registered as at 31/12/03, as per
the Department of Labour website of registered unions (see www.ers.dol.gov.nz-unionregistration and DOL Annual Report 2003). At the end of 2003, registered unions numbered
186. Two unions (The Seafarers Union and The Waterfront Workers Union) merged toform the Maritime Union of New Zealand, and four unions deregistered, reducing thenumber to 181. The Department of Labour notes that there were 178 registered unionsat 1 March 2004 (DOL, July 2004) this is due to three unions deregistering during theperiod January to June 2004.
In February 2004, each of the registered unions was sent a survey requesting membershipnumbers as at 31 December 2003. Two further follow up mail-outs resulted in a total of
134 returns. Details on the remaining 47 unions were established by using last year’s
return veriﬁed by the Registrar’s ﬁgures, or telephone contact where possible, and any
media information (DOL 2003, 2004). Of these 47 unions, ﬁve were newly registered andwere attributed the minimum membership ﬁgure of 15.

The Employment Relations Act and Trade Union Registration
The objects of the Act with respect to the recognition and operation of unions are:
• To recognise the role of unions in promoting their members’ collective interests• To provide for the registration of unions that are accountable to their members• To confer on registered unions the right to represent their members in collective
bargaining• To provide representatives of registered unions with reasonable access toworkplaces for purposes related to employment and union business.
In pursuit of these objectives, the ERA establishes a union registration system, andgrants registered unions bargaining rights together with rights of access to workplaces(speciﬁed in sections 19-25). To gain registration, a union must have more than 15
members, and provide a statutory declaration that it complies with the requirements ofs14 of the Act regarding rules, incorporation and independence from employers. The
Act requires the statutory declaration to stipulate that the union is ‘independent of, and isconstituted and operates at arm’s length from any employer’ (s14(1)d). The Registrar ofUnions may rely on the statutory declaration to establish entitlement to registration. Only
registered unions may negotiate collective agreements, and collective agreements apply
only to union members whose work falls within the agreement’s coverage clause, andto new workers whose work falls within the agreement’s coverage clause for the ﬁrst 30
days of their employment.

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 2

26/01/2005 7:22:44 p.m.

Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand 85

Results: Union numbers and membership
Table 1 shows trade union membership since 1985. Union density is deﬁned as the
proportion of potential union members who belong to a union (Bamber and Lansbury,1998). The numerator and denominator in this equation vary from country to country
and there is no agreed ‘correct’ method. What is important is consistency in reporting
so that results can be compared year on year. One measure of density uses the total
employed labour force as the denominator. This includes employers, self-employed
and unpaid family members, many of whom do not usually represent potential union
members. Another measure of density is based on wage and salary earners only. Whilst
union membership numbers continued to rise in 2003, strong labour force growth has
meant that density levels have stalled at 2002 levels. The growth in the total labour force
during 2003 was 2.6 per cent and the growth of wage and salary earners alone was 2.1
per cent. Union membership increases did not keep pace with this growth.
Table 1: Trade Unions, Membership and Union Density 1991-2003

Source: Household Labour Force Survey, Table 3, Table 4.3 (unpublished), HLFQ.SAA3AZ, Industrial Relations Centre Survey(Notes: Total employed labour force includes self-employed, employers and unpaid family workers. Figures in columns 3, 4, 5 & 6
are different to those reported in previous years due to a population rebase by Statistics NZ in June 2004, see HLFS population
rebase: June 2004 quarter, July 2004)

In June 2004, Statistics New Zealand adjusted the Household Labour force statistics,
based on the 2001 census, and the adjustment was made all the way back to March
quarter 1986. As a result, the slightly higher labour force ﬁgures have meant a small

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 3

26/01/2005 7:22:45 p.m.

86 Robyn May, Pat Walsh and Catherine Otto

downward adjustment to density ﬁgures. The ﬁgures reported in Table 1 are, therefore,
different to those previously reported from this survey.

Results: Union size
Prior to 1987, New Zealand had numerous small unions, most of whom were dependent
on the protections of the arbitration system. The introduction in the Labour Relations
Act 1987 of the requirement that unions have a minimum membership of 1000 ensured
that the number of unions dropped dramatically between 1985 and 1989. During the
ECA, when registration provisions were abolished, the number of unions estimated to be
in existence varied between 58 (in 1992) and 83 (in 1996). It is possible these ﬁgures
may have slightly under represented the real numbers of unions, as there was no formalmeans of identiﬁcation. However, these are the only documented estimates available. It
is noteworthy that the number of unions remained very stable between 1994 and 1999.
The number of unions has more than doubled in the last four years since the introductionof the ERA (see Table 1 above). A key reason for this is that under the ECA, a large
number of collective contracts were negotiated by informal groupings of workers who
did not deﬁne themselves as unions and were not captured by our surveys. The ERA
requirement that only registered unions can participate in collective bargaining has led
to many of these to formalise their status as a registered union to allow them to continue
to negotiate their terms and conditions of employment. The low membership thresholdfor registration - just 15 members - allows these unions to register on an enterprisebasis. As Table 2 shows, the membership of unions with less than 1,000 members
has risen almost seven-fold since 1991. However, this has not substantially altered the
distribution of membership by union size since 1999. Small unions (those with less than
1000 members) still only account for 6 per cent of overall membership, and large unions(those with more than 10,000 members) account for 70 per cent of all membership.
Overwhelmingly, membership increases are as a result of growth in the large establishedunions. One consequence of the rise in union numbers is that average union size has
declined substantially, from 7,593 members in 1991 to 1,887 members in 2003 (Harbridge,
Hince and Honeybone, 1994).
Closer examination of the new unions, those unions whose formal existence is closely
linked to the ERA, has found that the majority are enterprise or workplace based. Thisis a new phenomenon for New Zealand unionism. Furthermore, these organisations
often do not see themselves as unions; this reﬂects the context of their origins under the
ECA. Indeed, a number of them explained on survey returns that: ‘the ERA forced us tobecome a union’ (Barry and May, 2002: 17). These organisations have extremely limited
resources and typically exist to negotiate a collective agreement for members and little
beyond.

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 4

26/01/2005 7:22:45 p.m.

Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand 87

Table 2: Membership by union size 1991 – 2003, selected years

Source: Industrial Relations Centre Survey

Table 3 shows that despite the increase in the numbers of unions, the concentrationof union membership in the top 10 largest unions remains high, dropping only slightly
from 78 per cent in 1999 to 75 per cent in 2003. This tendency for membership to beconcentrated in the largest 10 unions was in part a consequence of the 1,000 member
rule introduced through the Labour Relations Act (LRA) in 1987. The LRA set in motion
a process of union amalgamations and mergers that bore fruit in the 1990s, leading toa high degree of union concentration. This concentration trend was accelerated by thecollapse of many unions under the ECA. Between 1984-1991, the largest 10 unions
represented around 45 per cent of all union members. By 1994 the largest 10 unions
represented 70 per cent of all union membership (Harbridge, Hince and Honeybone,1994) and concentration has remained high since.
Table 3: Membership of largest 10 unions (selected years)

Source: Industrial Relations Centre Survey, Harbridge, Hince & Honeybone, 1994

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 5

26/01/2005 7:22:45 p.m.

88 Robyn May, Pat Walsh and Catherine Otto

Results: Union membership by Industry
Table 4 examines gains and losses in membership by industry at the one-digit level(classiﬁed according to the Australia New Zealand Standard Industry Classiﬁcation). In
2003, unions recorded large membership gains in the retail sector and the construction
sector, two of the fastest growing areas of the labour force. Membership in construction
grew by 27 per cent in 2003 and retail grew by 10 per cent. This is good news for unions
in these hard to organise areas. Table 6 shows, however, that, despite membershipgains, union density levels have only slightly improved in retail and have declined inconstruction. Membership gains have not kept up with labour force growth in the two
sectors. There was also a noteworthy increase of 48 per cent in membership in therelatively small agriculture, ﬁshing and forestry sector.
Membership gains are once again recorded within the public and community services
category although at more modest rates than last year. Membership in the government
administration and defence category has increased by 2 per cent, in the health sectorby 2 per cent and in the education sector 5 per cent. Of concern for unions will be theongoing decline in manufacturing, where membership dropped 3 per cent in 2003, on theback of a 1 per cent decline in 2002. This sector alone comprises 21 per cent of overall
union membership.
Table 4: Union membership change by industry 2002 – 2003

Source: Industrial Relations Centre Survey

Table 5 shows where 2003’s new union members have come from. The biggest gains
have come from the health sector, which claims almost half of 2003’s 6800 new members.
The education, retail, transport and construction sectors all contributed to 2003 gains. Of
concern for unions is the fact that the union mainstay of manufacturing slipped backwards

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 6

26/01/2005 7:22:45 p.m.

Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand 89

in 2003, as it did in 2002 as well. The ﬁnance and business sector also continues to see
declines in membership.
Table 5: Union membership and growth by industry 2003

Source: Industrial Relations Centre Survey, 2003

Union membership remains highly concentrated, with three quarters of all members
located in the public and community services sector and manufacturing sector. As wehave noted in previous reports, these two sectors are not major growth areas of the labour
force. In 2003, manufacturing and public and community services together accounted
for 46 per cent of all wage and salary earners (Statistics NZ, unpublished tables). In
1996, the ﬁgure was 47 per cent, indicating that at best the two sectors have a stable
presence in the overall labour force. However, for unions the reality is that three quartersof members are located in industry sectors that represent less than half the wage andsalary workforce.
We also ask unions how many of their members work in the private sector and the public
sector. We now estimate that almost 53 per cent of all union members work in the public
sector. This is not quite the equivalent of the public and community services sector asthat category includes some private sector employment, particularly in the areas of health,education and other services. Whilst we have only asked unions for their estimates of the
public/private split of membership since 2000, using the public and community services
sector as a proxy measure shows how the composition of membership between the
public and private sectors has changed dramatically over the last decade or so. In 1991,

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 7

26/01/2005 7:22:45 p.m.

90 Robyn May, Pat Walsh and Catherine Otto

40 per cent of members were employed in the public and community sector (Crawford,
Harbridge & Walsh, 2000), since 2000 we have tracked the per centage as over 50 per
cent. This trend is underlined by analysis of our collective bargaining database, which for
2003/04 reports that 58 per cent of those covered by collective agreements contained in
the database are employed in the public sector (May, Walsh & Kiely, 2004:17).
Tables 6 and 7 show that the areas of union stronghold are not the same as those sectorsof the labour force that have grown over the last decade. Table 5 depicts how union
membership is highly concentrated and table 6 shows that these sectors are the areas ofhighest density. The education sector has the highest level of union density at 51.9 per
cent, closely followed by government administration and defence, health, transport andstorage and then manufacturing. Density has been calculated by using the wage andsalary earners only component of the Household Labour Force survey, thus eliminating
self-employed and employers from the calculations.
Table 6: Density by industry (selected industries) 2003

Source: Household Labour Force Survey – wage and salary earners component, unpublished, Statistics New Zealand, 2004.
Industrial Relations Centre Survey.

Table 7 shows that overall the labour force has grown by 13.5 per cent in the seven years
December 1996 to December 2003, while union membership is essentially the same now
as it was in 1996. Disguised within this, however, is the fact that membership bottomed
out in 1999, before commencing a slow and steady increase to the current period.
Sectors where employment growth has been above average include retail (growing 20
per cent), and construction (growing 26 per cent). The public and community services
sector also grew by 18 per cent during this period. Union membership during the sevenyear period fell in all but three categories, those being agriculture, ﬁshing and forestry;retail, wholesale and accommodation and public and community services, with an overall
increase of a little under one per cent.

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 8

26/01/2005 7:22:46 p.m.

Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand 91

Table 7: Sectoral changes in employment 1996 – 2003, wage and salary earners
component of HLFS

Source: Household Labour Force Survey, wage and salary earners component, 1996 & 2003, unpublished, Statistics New
Zealand. Industrial Relations Centre Survey.

Results: Gender
The percentage of union members who are female is 52.7 per cent. As reported inprevious years, female membership in unions remains higher than their participation in
the workforce. The percentage of the total labour force that is female is 45.7 per cent
(Household Labour Force Survey, Dec 2003 Table 3, Statistics New Zealand 2003). The
percentage of union members who are female has been around 48-50 per cent for thelast decade. This year’s ﬁgure is the highest we have reported so far, higher than lastyear’s ﬁgure of 51.5 per cent.
Ethnicity analysis
The 2001 survey asked a new question about whether the union collected statistics on
the ethnic background of membership. This year, 32 unions advised that they collected
statistics on ethnicity. These unions covered 167,419 employees or 49.0 per cent of total
union members. The aggregate breakdown of that membership by ethnicity, comparedto the ethnicity breakdown of the total labour force, was as follows:
Table 8: Ethnicity by sample and labour force 2003 – where details are provided* Statistics N1ew Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey, December Quarter 2003, table 5. No breakdown given for Asianworking population

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 9

26/01/2005 7:22:46 p.m.

92 Robyn May, Pat Walsh and Catherine Otto

Results: Peak body afﬁliations
We asked each union to report on their peak council afﬁliation and the results are reported
in Table 8 below. Since many of the new unions have no sense of afﬁnity with the wider
movement (Barry and May 2002), few of these have afﬁliated with the CTU. As a result,only 36 of the 181 registered unions are CTU afﬁliates. More importantly, however,
CTU afﬁliates comprise 87 per cent of total union membership and represent 18 of the
20 largest unions in New Zealand. This proportion has been consistent throughout theperiod of the ERA.
Table 9: NZCTU afﬁliation 1991 – 2003

Source: Industrial Relations Centre surveys

Discussion
Four years have elapsed since the passing of the ERA in October 2000, and we are in areasonable position to make comment on its impact of New Zealand’s union movement.
Every year since the ERA’s introduction, has seen an increase in membership. Overall,
the four years have seen membership rise by 13 per cent, or a little over 39,000 members.
The annual increases have been variable. Membership increased by 5.4 per cent in
2000, it was 3.6 per cent in 2001 and for the last two years the rate of annual increase
has dropped to 1.5 per cent. In terms of union density, the clearest measure of union
strength, the inability of union recruitment to keep pace with strong labour force growthover recent years has seen density effectively stalled at around 21 per cent of all wage
and salary earners.

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 10

26/01/2005 7:22:46 p.m.

Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand 93

A number of issues emerge for New Zealand’s trade unions. The ERA has a clear
objective to promote collective bargaining. This has not occurred. The Industrial Relations
Centre’s most recent analysis of collective agreements shows a decline in bargaining
coverage (May, Walsh & Kiely, 2004). In part this is a function of the ERA’s requirementsthat only union members are covered by collective agreements, and as a consequence,the prevalence of ‘free-riding’. The decline in coverage is also due to unions’ inability
to extend bargaining on a multi-employer or industry basis, and break into the hard tounionise but expanding areas of the labour market. These issues have been uppermost
on unions’ minds as they lobbied government over the detail of the Employment Relations
Law Reform Bill. The Bill, which the government hopes will be law on 1 December 2004,
makes changes around good faith rules for collective bargaining including new remedies
for breaches of good faith during bargaining. The Bill also introduces protections forvulnerable workers in a transfer, sale or contracting out situation and makes somechanges to provisions for the promotion of collective bargaining.
In terms of the ‘free-riding’ issue, the Bill will make it a breach of good faith to pass on
terms or conditions of a collective agreement to a non-union employee, if the intention
and effect is to undermine the collective bargaining. Furthermore, a Supplementary
Order Paper proposes amendments to the Bill to allow for a bargaining fee to be paid byemployees who are not in a union but whose work falls within the coverage of a collective
agreement. The bargaining fee would however apply only under a set of very limited
conditions that require employer agreement, agreement by secret ballot, and the ability
to ‘opt out’ by the individual employee. Strikes and lockouts over bargaining fees would
not be permitted (Minister for Labour, 13 September 2004)
Business New Zealand mounted a strong campaign of opposition to the Employment
Relations Law Reform Bill (ERLRB). They have claimed that the Bill represents an
infringement of employer ‘rights and freedoms’, including what they refer to as ‘freedomof speech’ - for example, advising ‘an employee against joining a collective agreementwith the intention of undermining the collective’ (BNZ, 2004). The Employers andManufacturers Association (2004: 2) notes, ‘The primary motivation for the Bill is topromote an outdated collective ideology, based on unionism, which no longer has any
relevance in 21st century New Zealand, or to the well-informed, well-educated people
working in kiwi workplaces’. Given the possibility that a National Government, supportedby the business sector, could be elected in 2005, New Zealand unions cannot assume
that the provisions of the ERLRB will endure.
Further, recent comments from Opposition Leader, Dr Don Brash about New Zealand’s
falling behind Australia, and a large wage gap between Australia and New Zealand(estimated to be somewhere of the order of $200 per week per person) raise aninteresting discussion. An obvious institutional point of difference between Australia and
New Zealand is the award system. Whilst the last decade has seen some downgradingof Australia’s award system, it remains a fact that a large number of Australian workers

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 11

26/01/2005 7:22:46 p.m.

94 Robyn May, Pat Walsh and Catherine Otto

have their wages and conditions, at least at some minimal level, regulated by thissystem. In New Zealand, collective bargaining coverage is conﬁned to around 20 per
cent of the workforce and is far more common in the public sector than in the private
sector. Barry and Wailes (2004:19) note, ‘…during the course of the 1990s Australia’s
labour productivity performance has been far superior to that of New Zealand despite thecontinued role played by Arbitration’. Whether the award system will remain in place inAustralia in the wake of the re-election of the Liberal Government remains to be seen.
Some serious challenges remain for New Zealand unions. Membership and bargaining
are increasingly a polarised, public sector rather than private sector, activity. Furthermore,
the ERA appears to have broken the historical pattern of bargaining leading membership,
where unions levered membership growth off a collective agreement. In 2003/04, we ﬁnd
for the ﬁrst time, that membership ﬁgures exceed those of collective bargaining coverageﬁgures. This serves to both narrow and conﬁne unions’ sphere of inﬂuence to theirstronghold areas of the public sector and to a lesser extent manufacturing and transportand storage. Without any mechanism for extending union inﬂuence beyond the speciﬁcenterprise collective agreement, unions remain trapped in a site-by-site bargaining cycle.
The ERLRB looks unlikely to bring relief in this area. The New Zealand economy iscurrently running at very low levels of unemployment, with signiﬁcant skill shortages
emerging in a number of areas. Although under such circumstances it would normallybe anticipated that wages would rise, there is no evidence of a wages boom, certainly
not for collectivised workers who on average are receiving increases only slightly above
the inﬂation rate (May, Walsh & Kiely, 2004). Nor have we found any real evidence of awinning back of conditions lost during the ECA (May, Walsh & Kiely, 2004: 13).
In last year’s report, we observed that it is understandable, and consistent with historicalexperience, that unions have looked to government for a legislative ﬁx to their problems.
However, we added that ‘the historical lesson for unions is that the legislative ﬁx only
works if it is sustainable in the long-term under governments of different persuasions.
It is not obvious that legislative measures of the kind that would restore union fortunes
now and quickly would gain long-term bi-partisan support’ (May, Walsh, Harbridge andThickett, 2003: 324). The debate over the ERLRB suggests that there is little likelihoodof long-term bi-partisan support for the measures contained there, although we note thatbusiness and the National party originally opposed but now largely support the ERA. As
we stressed last year, a restoration of union fortunes, although it can be encouraged
by supportive legislation, must depend in the long-term on the development by unions
of a strategic direction that is grounded in their own capabilities and which offers thema sustainable path forward. We do not underestimate the magnitude of this challenge,
since the current level of trade union capability, even enhanced by the likely provisionsof the ERLRB, does not seem to provide a realistic basis for the restoration of union
fortunes to anything resembling their pre-ECA level. If this is true, a key challenge forunions is to agree on the degree of recovery that may be possible, and the strategic
initiatives that will contribute to this.

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 12

26/01/2005 7:22:46 p.m.

Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand 95

References:
Bamber, G. and Lansbury, R. (1998), International and Comparative Employment Relations. London, Sage
Barry, M. and May, R. (2002), ‘United we stand, Multiplied we fall: New unions and the New Zealand Employment Relations Act’,in McAndrew, I and Geare, A (eds) AIRAANZ 2002: Proceedings of the 16th Association of Industrial Relations Academics ofAustralia and New Zealand Conference, Queenstown, 5-9 February, Vol. 2, pp 11-18.
Barry, M. and Wailes, N. (2004), ‘Contrasting systems? 100 years of Arbitration in Australia and New Zealand’, Working Paper
1/04, IRC, Victoria University of Wellington
Crawford, A., Harbridge, R. and Walsh, P. (2000), ‘Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual review for 1999’,
Working Paper 11/00, IRC, Victoria University of Wellington
Business New Zealand (2004), Business Update Special: Employment Bill - New Obligations on You, New Fines, Your Rights
Removed.
Department of Labour (2002), ERA Info, Volume 8, July 2002, Wellington.
Department of Labour (2003), ERA Info, Volume 12, July 2003, Wellington.
Department of Labour (2004), ERA Info, Volume 16, July 2004, Wellington.
EMA (2004), EMA submission on ERLRB, Executive Summary, 29 April, 2004, p 2.
ERS Website, www.ers.dol.gov.nz-union-registration.
Harbridge, R., Hince, K. and Honeybone, A. (1994), Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual review for 1993, New
Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations, 19(2): 175-180.
Harbridge, R., Walsh, P. and Wilkinson, D. (2001), ‘Determinants of Union Growth in New Zealand: Ending the Decline’, Paper
presented to Union Growth Conference, University of Toronto.
May, R., Walsh, P., Thickett, G. and Harbridge, R. (2003), Unions and Union membership in New Zealand: Annual review for 2002,
New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations, 28(3): 314-325.
May, R., Walsh, P., Harbridge, R. and Thickett, G. (2001), Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual Review for
2001, New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations, 28(3): 307-322.
May, R., Walsh, P. and Kiely, P. (2004), Employment Agreements: Bargaining Trends and Employment Law Update 2003/2004,
Industrial Relations Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.
Thickett, G., Harbridge, R., Walsh, P. and Kiely, P. (2002), Employment Agreements: Bargaining Trends and Employment Law
Update 2001/2002, Industrial Relations Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.
Thickett, G., Harbridge, R., Walsh, P. and Kiely, P. (2003), Employment Agreements: Bargaining Trends and Employment Law
Update 2002/2003, Industrial Relations Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.
Statistics New Zealand (2002, 2003, 2004), Household Labour Force Survey, unpublished reports, Wellington.
Swain, P. (2004), ‘Balanced changes recommended to the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill’, Government website, 13
September 2004.

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 13

26/01/2005 7:22:46 p.m.

96 Robyn May, Pat Walsh and Catherine Otto

Appendix
Public/Private sector employment breakdown using Quarterly Employment Survey

See: ‘Differences between the QES and HLFS’ (Statistics New Zealand) for an explanation of why the HLFS and the QES report
different ﬁgures. The above ﬁgures represent ‘ﬁlled jobs’, ie. people, but establishments employing less than the equivalent of two
full time persons are not measured. Hence the private sector ﬁgure is likely to be understated.

7 May et al 26 Jan 05.indd 14

26/01/2005 7:22:47 p.m.

Chronicle 97

CHRONICLE
June 2004
Submissions to the Select Committee on the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill
continued and, as many people wished to make oral submissions on the Bill, there wasfurther delays. The select committee was scheduled to report back to Parliament at theend of June but the date was extended to early August.
The country’s biggest media company Fairfax told the Select Committee that the Billshould be scrapped. The company disagreed with numerous clauses and it argued thatthe legislation would increase compliance costs, restrict the freedom of choice between
individual and collective agreements and infringe on its right to manage. In contrast, theMaritime Union wanted changes to the Employment Relations Act to safeguard secure,permanent jobs and it advocated that the industry needed to be rid of casualisation. The
union wanted to see the maritime workforce regulated, and New Zealand shipping given
priority to carry New Zealand coastal cargo. On a different note, Margaret Long (77years) and Elizabeth Orr (74 years) told the Select Committee to abandon the proposed
repeal of the equal pay legislation (passed in 1960 and 1972) because it would weaken
women’s rights. The National Council of Women supported this because it would remove
the process available to women to take pay equity claims to the Employment Relations
Authority and the Employment Court. The submission said that women now made up 47
per cent of all employees, yet on average they earned only 84.3 per cent of the averagehourly earnings of men.
Business New Zealand advised its members to watch out for ‘sickies’ during Queen’s
Birthday weekend. In an electronic newsletter to its 15,000 members, the organisation
said that some ﬁrms had reported higher-than-usual employee sick leave during Easterand on Anzac Day. It blamed the new Holidays Act that required employers to pay
rostered workers time-and-a-half even if they called in sick on a public holiday.
The employers received unexpected support from the unions when the President of theCouncil of Trade Unions (CTU), Ross Wilson, questioned the Department of Labour
interpretation that the Holidays Act entitled workers to be paid time and a half when they
were sick on a public holiday. The Department of Labour claimed that workers, who aresick on public holidays, are entitled to penal rates under the revised Holidays Act 2003.
However, this interpretation was disputed by employer groups. Ross Wilson regarded
it as ‘an unintended consequence’: penal rates were only intended to be paid to people
who worked on a public holiday and it was now given to people who did not work ona public holiday. According to the Dominion Post, the Minister of Labour, Paul Swain,
conﬁrmed that he was likely to change the law.

8 Chronicle 10 Jan 05.indd 1

26/01/2005 7:27:48 p.m.

98 Chronicle

Westpac call centre staff walked off the job in protest at their employers’ refusal to address
their concerns about work and life balance. Call centre staff in Christchurch, Wellington
and Auckland picketed outside the bank’s ofﬁces. Finsec, the union representing the
striking staff said the striking workers wanted their terms and conditions to be brought
into line with their other colleagues who worked 37.5 hours a week. The call centre staff
also sought a ﬁve-month agreement so they could renegotiate at the same time as otherstaff covered by the bank’s main collective agreement.
General staff at Victoria University’s library went on strike for two hours to protest against
a stalled pay claim. Staff wanted a 4% pay increase (the same as academic staff) andrejected the university’s offer of a 2.5% increase and a one-off $350 payment.
More than 200 mental health nurses in central North Island issued notice of strike. Their
union said the six-day strike was likely after a 10-hour mediation session between the
Public Service Association (PSA) and three Health Boards ended in stalemate. For the
past eight months, the two sides had been negotiating a collective agreement to coverpsychiatric nurses, psychiatric assistants, community mental health nurses and forensic
mental health nurses from the three Health Boards of Waikato, Lakes and Bay of Plenty.
The Waikato nurses wanted a 3.4% pay rise to be backdated to October 2003, followed
by a 3.4% increase in October 2004. Nurses employed by the other two health boards
wanted their pay increased to match the pay levels of Waikato nurses.
Toll Holdings asked the Employment Relations Authority for an urgent hearing to preventa planned wildcat scheduled for Queen’s Birthday weekend by 50 cooks and stewards
on Cook Strait ferry Arahura. The Maritime Union claimed Toll Holdings had told its
members to take a big cut in pay and conditions or be made redundant. Additionally, Toll
Holdings had told the union that the Arahura’s stewards would no longer live in special
quarters on the ship for each seven-day shift, but instead had to report for work each day
in Wellington.
Mediation failed to resolve an employment dispute threatening the transfer of the Aucklandrail network to the new operator, Toll Holdings. Toll Holdings, the new owner of Tranz
Rail, was seeking an Employment Relations Authority declaration that it did not have tolet staff stay on a multi-employer collective agreement after their transfer to new operator
Connex. The Rail and Maritime Transport Union said the around 115 staff wanted anorderly transfer, but they would claim redundancy compensation if offered less than their
existing conditions.
In an Employment Relations Authority case, four long serving help-desk analysts at a
Paraparaumu information technology company challenged their employer’s decision
to pay them less than new staff. The company had decided to leave them on their
existing annual pay of about $32,000 despite that new operators started on about$37,000. However, the Employment Relations Authority ruled in favour of the employer.

8 Chronicle 10 Jan 05.indd 2

26/01/2005 7:27:48 p.m.

Chronicle 99

Employment lawyer Paul Pringle said the judgment afﬁrmed the right of employers tooffer different rates of pay to people working in the same role.
Police Commissioner Rob Robinson came under ﬁre during a Law and Order SelectCommittee hearing at Parliament for receiving a 25% pay increase during the past two
years while his staff received only about 5% during the same period.
An Auckland company director stood by his warning to workers that they would bedismissed if they did not speak English at work. Managing Director Maurice Clist claimed
that he was within his rights to insist that staff at the Fort Richard Laboratories all spoke
English, even during lunch breaks. The director claimed that for safety reasons he hadalready ordered some workers to speak only English on the production line because thecompany prepared medical supplies for disease diagnosis.

July 2004
Hundreds of Central North Island mental health nurses went on strike in early July after
they had rejected the employer’s latest offer (see June Chronicle). The strike came after
the Public Service Association (PSA) had negotiated with the region’s three Health Boards– Waikato, Lakes and Bay of Plenty - over an eight-month period and been involvedin four failed mediation sessions. The PSA wanted a 3.5% pay increase for Waikato
nurses, backdated to October 2003, followed by another 3.5% increase in October 2004.
They also wanted nurses in the Lakes and Bay of Plenty Districts to be paid the same as
Waikato nurses. Following further mediation talks, the Waikato Times could announce
that an agreement had been reached and the nurses would return to work.
The Dominion Post reported the start of negotiations in Wellington for a national pay
deal for 20,000 nurses (see May Chronicle). If successful, it would be the ﬁrst time in 13
years that nurses from the 21 district health boards would be covered by one collective
agreement. The Nurse’s Organisation was seeking pay equity with professions suchas teachers and police, as well as ﬁxed nurse-to-patient ratios. The union’s 20% pay
claim would increase base rates for graduate nurses from $32,000 to $40,000 and seniornurses from $45,000 to $60,000. It was estimated to cost the Government around $300
million a year.
Victoria University general staff accepted a 3% pay rise, ending a six-week dispute (seeJune Chronicle). Secretarial and administrative staff, librarians and laboratory technicians
had originally sought a 4% pay rise.
The NZ Herald reported a 24-hour strike at a Carter Holt Harvey plant in Northland.
About 140 of the 180 workers at the site went on strike protesting against the company’s
refusal to pay an increased overtime payment to union members of 1.5 times the hourly

8 Chronicle 10 Jan 05.indd 3

26/01/2005 7:27:48 p.m.

100 Chronicle

rate. The employees had turned down the company’s offer of an overtime payment of
1.2 times the hourly rate.
Both the primary and secondary teachers’ unions began their collective agreement talks.
The primary teachers’ union, the New Zealand Educational Institute, sought a 6 per centpay rise for around 25,000 teachers and 2000 principals (see May Chronicle). The major
bargaining issues were expected to be workloads and recognition of qualiﬁcations.
The Employment Court ruled that Toll Holdings, the owner of the Interisland Ferry,
could continue a restructuring programme with shift changes for more than 40 cooks
and stewards (see June Chronicle). By rejecting the Maritime Union’s claim that the
redundancies were unlawful, the Court said its decision was conditional on existing
employees being considered for the new roles, proper consultation being undertaken
and any ensuing redundancy provisions being honoured.
Negotiations between unions representing Presbyterian Support workers in Southland
and their employer reached a deadlock. Pay negotiations began in March but the latest
offer tabled by Presbyterian Support Southland was rejected because it was less thanprevious offers already turned down by union members. Presbyterian Support Southland
claimed that rising operational costs such as the Holidays Act, which added a further 2% to
the payroll budget, made it difﬁcult for employers to meet union members’ expectations.
According to NZ Herald, the Auckland Company that banned its employees from speaking
anything but English (see June Chronicle) also prevented union representatives fromentering the premises to offer help. The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union
tried to enter the premises to recruit workers. However, the union was advised by
the lawyer acting for Fort Richards Laboratories, that the company had an exemption
under the Employment Relations Act on the grounds that the employer was a memberof a religious society whose doctrine and beliefs preclude membership of any otherorganisation or body.
University of Canterbury faced accusations of gender bias along with female academics
alleging bullying and intimidation by the predominantly male hierarchy. According to thePress, one lecturer had lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission andother female academics had complained of a male-dominated university culture where
women struggled to progress. The Human Rights Commission had agreed to follow up
the allegations and would attempt mediation.
National Party leader Don Brash claimed that New Zealand’s strong economic run in thepast two or three years masked structural problems and these prevented New Zealanders
from catching up with Australian income levels. Dr Brash estimated that a family offour in New Zealand earned, on average, about $700 a week less than their Australiancounterparts and that the buoyancy in cyclical terms had nothing to do with government
policies. He also suggested that recently implemented policies would actually impede
the rate of growth and identiﬁed that aspects of the Resource Management Act, the

8 Chronicle 10 Jan 05.indd 4

26/01/2005 7:27:48 p.m.

Chronicle 101

Employment Relations Law Reform Bill and the Holidays Act were the opposite of thekinds of policies required to foster long-term economic growth.
The Employment Relations Authority dismissed a case taken by two New Plymouth
District Council employees where they sought the ability to avoid wearing name badges
at work. The workers claimed that the wearing of full names was a threat to their safety
and health but the Authority found name badges were not hazardous to an employee’s
health. Their union, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, said the decision
would be appealed.
A long-running employment saga at Radio New Zealand continued in the Employment
Court when the broadcaster conceded that there were no medical grounds for its
continued refusal to allow its news manager Lynne Snowdon to return to her job. But thequestion of an ‘irretrievable breakdown’ in the employment relationship remained underconsideration by the company.
Meanwhile, another media organisation Maori Television Service (MTS) was ordered
to keep paying the salary of its General Manager of Programming, Joanna Paul, eventhough she had been on sick leave for almost four months. After her pay was stopped,
Ms Paul took her case to the Employment Relations Authority claiming that MTS had
breached her employment agreement, and sought damages or compensation. The
Authority found that by stopping Ms Paul’s pay without consultation, MTS had not acted
as a fair and reasonable employer.

August 2004
Negotiations over a new collective agreement for primary school teachers continued(see July Chronicle). Talks stalled over claims related to workload, and pay adjustments
related to qualiﬁcations, experience and responsibility. According to the Dominion Post,
the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) had warned during negotiations that its
members might strike if they did not get a better offer.
However, the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA), representing secondary
teachers, agreed a three-year collective agreement with the Ministry of Education.
The agreement would deliver salary increases of up to 13% over three years and wasestimated to cost around $270 millions. The PPTA claimed that it was a substantial
package that would help make secondary teaching a more attractive profession and that
it appeared to answer a lot of the concerns of secondary teachers.
Staff at McCain Foods potato factory in Fielding unanimously rejected what their union,
the Engineers Printers and Manufacturers Union, estimated to lead to an average 23%
pay cut. McCain Foods proposed to abolish shift allowance entitlements which would

8 Chronicle 10 Jan 05.indd 5

26/01/2005 7:27:48 p.m.

102 Chronicle

cause a signiﬁcant reduction of earnings for most employees. The company rejected theunion’s estimated ﬁgure, stating that it was distorted.
The Press covered extensively a local dispute at the Alliance Smithﬁeld freezing works
near Timaru. Alliance management wanted to spend $6.5 million at Smithﬁeld to increase
production and assure the future of the plant but had sought changes to contract rates forboning-room staff. The company announced that it would spend the money elsewhereif a settlement was not reached. This would clearly put the future of Smithﬁeld in doubt.
Negotiations broke down when the 130 boning room staff rejected the latest company
proposal.
The Press also reported that up to 200 Nurse Maude walked off the job for four hours after
mediation talks failed to reach agreement. The Nurse Maude Association had agreed tomeet the full cost of the nurses’ practising certiﬁcates but rejected claims for increased
pay, weekend and on-call rates, and extra sick leave. It was only the second time thatmembers of the NZ Nurses Organisation at Nurse Maude had gone on strike.
A strike at Ports of Auckland’s container terminals could have ramiﬁcations for all ports.
The Maritime Union’s Auckland branch president, Denis Carlisle, said in the NZ Heraldthat workers were trying to set benchmark employment conditions that would affect all
ports. Ports of Auckland had been chosen for these key negotiations because it was thebiggest port in New Zealand. The union claimed that some workers had been casuals
for nine years or more and were not able to organise their lives because they “lived on
the end of a phone”. It had proposed a scheme whereby workers moved to part-time andthen to permanent positions over time. However, the Ports of Auckland wanted the rightto choose staff rather than implement a system that awarded transfers by time served.
The Employment Court awarded a Hamilton legal executive $15,000 for humiliationand distress after she took parental leave and was made redundant on her return. The
Employment Relations Authority found her employer had breached the Parental Leave
and Employment Protection Act when he made her redundant. The employer challenged
the decision but the Employment Court Judge upheld the Authority’s decision.
Following mediation, Maori Television settled its dispute with its General Manager ofProgrammes, Joanna Paul (see July Chronicle). This also lifted the Employment
Relations Authority order for Maori Television to keep paying Ms Paul her salary despiteextensive sick leave.
Meanwhile, the controversial Principal of Cambridge High School, Alison Annan, claimed
that she was not sure that she had resigned. This was despite that she had told staff
she had resigned, her resignation was announced to a school assembly and a statement
was released to the Waikato Times which said “today I have resigned”. Ms Annan said
she had no signed letters, there was no date of resignation and she did not know if her

8 Chronicle 10 Jan 05.indd 6

26/01/2005 7:27:48 p.m.

Chronicle 103

resignation to the board had gone through the proper process. However, the statutory
manager appointed to run the school was adamant that she had resigned.
Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS) were ordered to pay $12,000 to a former social
worker suffering cerebral palsy who had complained of discrimination. The Employment
Relations Authority recommended that CYFS designate a manager to support employeeswith disabilities and that it should have had someone to act as a mentor for the employee
in order to give practical support and help organise the necessary workplace equipment.
The part-time employee claimed that CYFS had failed to provide an emotionally andphysically safe workplace, and it did not provide her with the equipment she needed to
do her job. She also said she was harassed by colleagues and suffered discrimination
because of her disability.
A special taskforce comprised of representatives from Department of Labour’s
Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Service, the Employment Relations Service andthe Immigration Service found sweatshop-type conditions in several of ‘ethnic’ Aucklandbusinesses. Most of the taskforce’s efforts had focused on the Auckland area, where, todate, it has taken action against three ‘ethnic’ employers and investigated another ﬁrm.
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union announced that it would challenge
the section of the Employment Relations Act which allowed Fort Richards Laboratories
to prevent it from talking to staff (see July Chronicle). That particular section of the Act
stipulated that if an employer was a member of a religious society then the employer
could be granted an exemption from the Act. Union Secretary Andrew Little said it would
ask Parliament to rescind this section of the Act as it was being used to over-ride workers’
basic rights.
Air New Zealand claimed that the new Holidays Act could add an extra $40 millions on
to its wage and salary bill this year and it was estimated to increase its labour costs by
2.5 to 5% in the year to June 2005. In its annual report, the company revealed that, inthe year to 30 June 2004, it took a $17 million ‘hit’ from rises in labour costs that had “nocorresponding gain in productivity”.

September 2004
The amended Employment Relations Law Reform Bill ﬁnally emerged from the selectcommittee process. There appeared to be ‘wins’ for both employers and unions. The
NZ Herald suggested that the changes would not stiﬂe complaints about the Bill fromthe business lobby but it would enable the Minister of Labour, Paul Swain, to convey
an impression that the Government had been listening. The newspaper suggested that
the National party’s warning that the Bill would prove detrimental to growth, productivity
and employers’ willingness to take on workers was a difﬁcult argument to sustain during

8 Chronicle 10 Jan 05.indd 7

26/01/2005 7:27:48 p.m.

104 Chronicle

a period of high economic growth, low unemployment and very little industrial unrest.
Having predicted doom and gloom when the Employment Contracts Act was repealed in
2000, the centre-right opposition parties could easily be accused of scaremongering.
The NZ Herald reported that the unions recorded some important ‘wins’ with the Bill: they
had made progress in preventing non-union staff ‘free-loading’ on workplace beneﬁts andthe Bill would make it more difﬁcult for employers to induce employees to refrain fromtaking part in collective bargaining. There was also a stricter deﬁnition of the ‘reasonablegrounds’ on which employers can refuse to conclude a collective agreement. The ‘wins’
for employers included the removal of a clause that could have dragged them into multiemployer collective agreements. The controversial clause about ‘passing on’ beneﬁts
was clariﬁed to avoid any suggestion of a breach of the law tough the clause still intended
to stop employers offering similar terms and conditions to staff on individual contracts
as those negotiated for the collective agreement. There was also further clariﬁcation
regarding employers’ duty to divulge commercially sensitive information about theirbusiness operations.
There were two further twists to the debate over the Bill. First, the Dominion Post reported
that the Minister of Labour, Paul Swain, had hinted that he might revamp the rules tomake it easier to sack new employees; many small employers had concerns about theprocedure for dismissals. Mr Swain’s reported comment was: “once this bill is passed
I will be looking at ways to give better guidance around these issues.” Second, Leaderof the National Party, Don Brash, was reported, rather surprisingly, as saying that his
party would review the Employment Relations Act, if in government, but he thought thebusiness community was ‘broadly happy’ with it. In Parliament, the Government claimed
that Dr Brash’s comments were at odds with a promise he reportedly made last October
to scrap the Employment Relations Act.
The Bill sparked fresh tensions between the Government and employers and particularly
the law change which allowed employers to possibility to deduct a ‘bargaining fee’from the pay of non-union workers caused a stir. Employer representatives accused
the Government of trying to stiﬂe debate by slipping the measure in unannounced in
the middle of the parliamentary recess. However, Labour Minister Paul Swain said the
proposed change had been signalled by the select committee when it was considering
the Bill. He also pointed out that employers would ﬁrst have to agree to the arrangement
and there would then have to be a ballot of all staff over whether the fee should be paid
and ﬁnally, individual workers, who decided they did not want to pay the fee, would not
be required to do so. Employers argued that the ‘bargaining fee’ option would have two
detrimental effects: it would increase compliance costs in workplaces where workers
agreed they wanted to pay the bargaining fee and, according to Business New Zealand,
workers would be pressured into paying the fees.
The Sunday Star Times criticised business lobby groups claiming that their lobbying was

8 Chronicle 10 Jan 05.indd 8

26/01/2005 7:27:48 p.m.

Chronicle 105

a repeat of their dismal performance when the Employment Relations Act was going
through Parliament in 2000. The article argued that while unions kept offering to moveto a more enlightened agenda on skills training, workplace productivity and other issues
critical to our economic future, business lobby groups kept rebufﬁng them, dragging thedebate back to the dark ages of confrontational industrial relations through misleading
and inﬂammatory rhetoric.
On the other hand, Charles Baird, a professor of economics at California State University,
said at a Business Roundtable event that he found a lot in the bill objectionable andpredicted that it could stiﬂe New Zealand’s economic growth. Professor Baird suggested
that the Employment Contracts Act was a better piece of legislation and was a “wonderfulmodel” for the civilised world.
Secondary teachers accepted with a large majority a new three-year agreement (seeAugust Chronicle). The agreement included pay increases ranging from 8.74% to 13.1%
over the three years as well as a targeted middle management package addressing pay
and workload issues. The Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) evaluated thatthe new agreement would make secondary teaching a more attractive and worthwhile
profession, that it would lead to real improvements in working conditions and paved theway for a long-term solution to recruitment and retention.
Meanwhile, the primary teachers’ union, NZ Educational Institute (NZEI), said that the$420 million pay offer from the Government was likely to be accepted by teachers,though a key part of the claim remained unsettled. As part of the offer, primary teachers
would be given time out of the classroom, as well as pay increases, and the promiseof more teachers. An important aspect of the claim was for an increase in the amountof ‘management units’ allocated to schools each year. NZEI wanted an increase in thenumber of units, but had not been able to make progress on that issue.
The Dominion Post reported that senior doctors were offered a collective agreement thatwould give them six weeks leave a year and a base salary of between $111,000 and$161,000. If accepted, it would be the ﬁrst national agreement for senior doctors since1992. Under the proposed agreement, District Health Boards would have to consult withsenior doctors before undertaking any review impacting on the delivery of services.
Nurses rejected a $329 million pay offer from the government and talked of possible
strike action after a breakdown of negotiations. Their employers estimated that the offer
of increases ranged from 6.1% to 27% over three years, that it was fair and as much as
they could afford. But the Nurses Organisation said the offer did too little to close the pay
gap between nurses and police and secondary teachers. At stopwork meetings, nurses
instructed their union to obtain a better offer or give notice of industrial action.
The ongoing dispute between the Lyttelton Port Company (LPC) and its unions went

8 Chronicle 10 Jan 05.indd 9

26/01/2005 7:27:48 p.m.

106 Chronicle

before the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) after the LPC management and the
combined unions struggled to come to agreement on one particular clause. The clausestipulated the number of part-time staff as opposed to full- time or casual workers theCompany is able to employ at any one time. The union was concerned that the LPC
was seeking to increase the number of part-time workers at its disposal, while LPC wasconcerned that the union interpretation of the clause could see the pool of part-timeworkers fall signiﬁcantly. The Authority ruled that LPC’s ability to employ new staff to
restore the size of the pool following dismissal, resignations or full-time appointments
was not limited by the clause in the expired collective agreement.
Ports of Auckland watersiders staged a four-day strike to contest the use of casual andpart-time staff (see August Chronicle). The Maritime Union estimated that enough work
existed for up to 14 people to become full-time. The company said that the union wasbacking away from an existing agreement that caps the use of casuals, who provide vital
ﬂexibility. It also argued that it needed ﬂexible stafﬁng because work at the port had more
peaks and troughs now that larger ships were arriving.
The Dominion Post reported that employers would be able to demand a medical certiﬁcate
from their employees at any time if they believe sick leave is being abused, under plannedchanges to the Holidays Act. This was in response to employers’ concerns that enhanced
sick leave provisions introduced last year had led to an increase in leave taking. Where a
medical certiﬁcate was required an employee would choose which doctor to consult, but
the cost would be borne by the employer. The planned change drew a sharp response
from Council of Trade Unions President Ross Wilson who said it was time for employers
to “put up or shut up” with hard evidence to support their claim workers were abusing
sick leave.
But the Chief Executive of Business New Zealand, Simon Carlaw, said that despite
employers’ concerns, the Government had done nothing to review a problem that hadarisen because of a late amendment to the deﬁnition of pay in the Holidays Act. What
the act now calls “relevant daily pay” included elements of overtime, bonus and incentive
payments and left employers effectively paying bonuses to staff who were off sick or on
bereavement leave. The Minister of Labour, Paul Swain, said government policy wasthat if people could not get to work because they were sick or bereaved they should not
be deprived of their income through no fault of their own.
The Employment Relations Authority ordered Air New Zealand to reinstate a worker who
was sacked after admitting he may have played golf while on sick leave. The worker
said he remembered a day when he went home sick with ﬂu and stress over his mother’s
death and his wife told him to play a round of golf. The company concluded that he had
played while on sick leave but the Authority found that Air New Zealand had acted unfairly
by failing to consider whether the worker took days off to play golf, or was genuinely sickand later felt well enough to play. It had also failed to look into his claim that he was

8 Chronicle 10 Jan 05.indd 10

26/01/2005 7:27:48 p.m.

Chronicle 107

stressed and had taken more than three months to resolve the problem, which did not ﬁtwith its argument that his conduct was serious enough to warrant being ﬁred.
As a result of a hearing before the Employment Relations Authority, the Cambridge
High School Principal, Alison Annan, won back her $100,000-a-year salary but was notallowed through the gates of Cambridge High School (see August Chronicle). Under theruling, she was banned from actually going to the school, but would collect her salary
until a full hearing into her personal grievances in October. Subsequently, a conﬁdential
settlement was reached through mediation and Ms Annan resigned her position effectivefrom 3 December.
Radio New Zealand head of news Lynne Snowdon was back in court trying to stop
her dismissal despite her winning an earlier court agreement allowing her to return towork (see July Chronicle). Her lawyer, Rob Moodie, asked the Employment Court in
Wellington yesterday to declare that RNZ could not proceed with a meeting to consider if
her employment relationship had irretrievably broken down. The decision was reserved.
Erling Rasmussen and Colin Ross
The University of Auckland

8 Chronicle 10 Jan 05.indd 11

26/01/2005 7:27:48 p.m.