The Impact of the Employment Contracts Act on Labour Law: Implications for Unions

Abstract

The Employment Contracts Act 1991 (the ECA or the Act) is only one of a number of fundamental changes to the basis upon which New Zealand society has recently been required to operate. These changes have been thrust upon New Zealanders by successive governments. The response of the people to such forced feeding has been to change the very basis of how governments are to be elected and are to operate. The public complaint is not only with the fast pace of unanticipated and undesired change. The complaint is more with the failure of politicians once elected to carry out policy announced in the process of electioneering.