Waterfront Labour Reform in New Zealand: Pressures, Processes and Outcomes

Abstract

New Zealand's programmes of waterfront reform, and of labour market deregula tion through the Employment Contracts Act 1991, have both attracted considerable attention from state reformers and organised business interests in Aus tralia. This article examines the combined effects of these legislative interventions on employment relations on the waterfront, and sounds a note of warning to tbose wbo seek to emulate the New Zealand experience. It argues that the causes and consequences of the process of waterfront labour reform can only be understood in the context of the historic effects of tbe 'bureau' system of labour administration, the scheme that regu lated the employment of watersiders for almost fifty years. While the abolition of this scheme in 1989, together with award restructuring, has increased the efficiency of New Zealand ports, recent moves by employers to increase labour flexibility' using the Employment Contracts Act 1991 have the potential to undermine these gains. This piece of legislation has eroded union coverage, led to the re-casualisation of a significant proportion of waterfront employment, allowed opportunistic small firms back, onto the waterfront, and opened up unbridled competition based on cutting labour costs in a manner that is having a detrimental effect on the work lives of watersiders. This development is counterproductive, given tbe continuing centrality of labour to tbe workflow systems, both container and conventional, on the waterfront.