Tracking the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill

Abstract

This paper analyses the media coverage of the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill in I he New Zealand Herald and the National Business Review which followed the Bill's passage into law. It considers the media as a 'site of struggle' through their publication of the attempts to influence the Government to change or retain measures, from contending perspectives of both businesses and trade union leaders. Their different views were strongly expressed in the initial reporting in the 'Working to Rules' series in the Business Herald which examined the new provisions for bargaining in the bill. The reports of the submissions to the Select Committee also covered diverse views from the community.

The paper assesses the Government response to these viewpoints in terms of the modifications to the original Bill and compares the requirements for bargaining in the new law to those in the Employment Contracts Act 1991 (see Harbridge, 1993) with those in the Employment Relations Act (see Boxall 2001, Wilson 2001).