The Employment Contracts Act and Work Stoppages

Abstract

A number of important changes in New Zealand's industrial relations have been credited to the effect of the Employment Contracts Act. Among them has been a decline in the level of industrial action, or as Bill Birch has put it, "a dramatic turn-around from the industrial conflict of the past" This particular change has been attributed by the Government to the establishment of increased and more constructive communication between employers and employees) no longer impeded by the autocratic and unwarranted interference of old style untontsts.