All relatively quiet on industrial front

New Zealand's workplace rules, now six months old, have yielded little of the chaos feared, says MATHEW DEARNALEY.

Contrary to doomsday warnings about the new labour law, a tsunami of industrial chaos has yet to swamp our shores.

Apart from a few waves breaking over the South Island waterfront, and the fright dealt to our export meat industry by striking Government vets, the Employment Relations Act has enjoyed a generally smooth cruise so far.

It is almost six months since the legislation swept out the Employment Contracts Act, but the Employment Court has rarely been so quiet.

The Opposition and other critics predicted that lawyers would have a field-day with disputes produced by the new law.

But most problems are being sorted out before an army of 40 Government mediators, with a new requirement for parties to undertake good-faith bargaining appearing to do the trick.

What is the initial verdict on the law?

International credit agency Standard and Poor's remains concerned about the longer-term economic impact of a more rigid labour market flowing from the new act.

"But we don't see it impacting on ratings yet," said its chief analyst covering New Zealand, Chew Ping, when commenting this month on revising the agency's outlook from negative to stable for our sovereign credit rating.

Comalco New Zealand director Kerry McDonald says life under the legislation is "so far, so good," with unionists showing an interest in constructive negotiation, but things could still turn sour.

Even Employers Federation chief Anne Knowles is sanguine about the new order, despite warning beforehand of the potential for great upheaval.

In a piece of deft footwork, she puts the present harmony down to good practice established under the old contracts act, when employers and workers got used to dealing with each other at the business enterprise level instead of via remote national awards.

But Opposition politicians are holding to their predictions of union belligerence as "payback" for the years when membership halved to just over 300,000 workers.

National MPs Max Bradford and Lockwood Smith say a Council of Trade Unions resolution to mount a campaign against Carter Holt Harvey, which is embroiled not just in the South Island waterfront row but a series of niggling disputes at North Island mills, is of grave concern.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union secretary Andrew Little says workers are more mature than politicians give them credit for, although he sees living costs and employment growth as adding pressure for pay rises above the 3 to 4 per cent now being achieved.

CTU president Ross Wilson will not disclose tactics agreed to by several unions in consultation with Australian counterparts for dealings with Carter Holt Harvey. "If the company plays ball, things will settle down," he says.

"On the whole, unions are made up of ordinary people who want to see strong economic growth built on constructive and inclusive workplace relationships and mutual respect."

What is happening to union membership under the new act?

Unions must lodge annual membership returns with the Labour Department's Employment Relations Service by June 1, to produce the first official annual estimate of unionised workers since 1991.

That was when the Employment Contracts Act removed even the term "union" from the statute books.

Victoria University's industrial relations centre, which continued its own surveys over the decade, estimates that 82 unions represented 302,405 workers - just 17 per cent of the employed labour force- in December 1999.

Back in mid-1991 there were only 80 unions but they covered 603,118 workers, or 41.5 per cent of those in employment.

Unions report steady but not spectacular growth since they have regained statutory recognition and it is deemed "safe" to join them again.

The law encourages the formation of new unions, allowing any group of 15 or more workers to seek registration with a statutory declaration that their organisation is independent and operates at arm's length from any employer.

Almost 50 new unions have sprung up since October, including the Rugby Players Collective representing Super 12 and NPC team-members, bringing the national total to 131.

For some unions, approaches from prospective members began as soon as the Government took office at the end of 1999, while others spent much of last year making themselves known to workers on sites where they had previously been shown the door.

Mr Wilson estimates that unions have had a 20,000 increase in membership.

Where are the main growth areas?

The engineers' union - which reports an increase of 2000 members to 52,000 - remains the country's largest.

It is using as a drawcard a new multi-employer agreement for northern and southern metal manufacturing firms, which includes a 3 per cent base pay rise and merges two documents.

Union organisers also hope to recruit many more forestry workers, thousands of whom were deunionised under the contracts act but whose industry is set to double production in 15 years.

The next largest union is the Public Service Association, which says it is adding hundreds a month to its 43,000-strong membership in a sector where individual contracts have made deep inroads.

"It's great to be growing again," says joint national secretary Richard Wagstaff.

Aotearoa Meat Workers' Union secretary Graeme Cooke says seasonal membership has leaped from about 5000 to 10,000 since early last year.

The union could hardly have fared worse in the 1990s. Mr Cooke says it faced the double axe of the contracts act and plant closures in 1991, with the Weddell company collapse alone stripping it of 2200 members.

But although many workers at new plants initially felt too insecure about their jobs to join the union, they began calling his office after the last election, and in October the floodgates opened.

"We can hardly keep up. We have put on a new fulltime health and safety coordinator, a new organiser and more office help," Mr Cooke.

CTU secretary Paul Goulter says that although the act gives unions their first chance for growth for many years, it simply provides a framework and cannot do the hard work of organising workers.

How are employers taking all this?

Many say it is business as usual and that only a few "ratbags" who took advantage of the demise of unions to exploit staff will feel the brunt of the new legislation.

One employer in the metals agreement says he supported the contracts act but he also sees a place for unions in providing checks and balances against those few reprobates.

Although his industry works amicably with unions, his one big concern is the waterfront and fears that the South Island log-loading dispute may spread to Auckland and other cargoes.

Mr Cooke, of the meat union, acknowledges that many employers are complying with the spirit of the new act, but says there are "still a lot of dogs out there."

He cites cases of employers setting up tame in-house unions to negotiate soft pay settlements which they then try to impose on his members.

The meat union is the first to start legal action to de-register new unions suspected of not meeting the "arms-length" requirement. Two cases are awaiting consideration in Auckland by the Employment Relations Authority.

The Waterfront Workers' Union is refraining from testing the pedigree of a new union covering workers being flown around the South Island to load ships with logs from Carter Holt Harvey mills.

It is understood to be reluctant to give the company further opportunity to portray the waterfront dispute as a demarcation row, when it says its fight is against the casualisation of the workforce.

Carter Holt accuses the union of using intimidatory tactics to violate a contract it has signed with Mainland Stevedores to move vital export products with innovative technology.

What about an independent view of the act?

Veteran industrial mediator Walter Grills, who chairs a committee of employer and union representatives working on a final code for good-faith bargaining, does not believe the legislation is radically different from the contracts act.

He sees its effects as mainly psychological. Employers are much more inclined to get around a table under the act's good-faith bargaining requirements, which he says mediators report have been working surprisingly well.

Auckland lawyer Garry Pollak, who has clients on both sides of the industrial fence, says a large chunk of collective agreements have been settled under the act and he has heard no major complaint.

Employment Relations Authority head Alastair Dumbleton says most cases reaching his jurisdiction are personal grievances and only about 5 per cent involve complaints about breaches of good faith.

What is good-faith bargaining?

Employers and unions must consider and respond to each other's proposals, do nothing to mislead or deceive each other, refrain from undermining the authority of bargaining representatives, and provide information reasonably necessary to substantiate claims or responses to claims.

But the Government wrote a section into the new act emphasising that the good-faith edict does not mean an employer or union has to enter a collective agreement.

A final version of an interim good-faith code agreed to by employers and unions should be in place by April 2, subject to approval by Labour Minister Margaret Wilson.

Mr Pollak says the code works both ways, allowing employers to seek mediation if unions refuse to consider proposals that may be essential to the survival of a struggling business.

* For advice on your rights under the new act, call the Employment Relations Service information line at 0800 800 863 or visit its website.