Felicity Lamm

Small businesses and OH&S advisors

Abstract Traditionally occupational health and safety (OH&S) enquiry has viewed the world of work as if it comprised of blue-collar male workers employed on a full-time basis in large organisations. However, to continue to analyze workplace health and safety within the narrow confines of unionized labour situated in large organisations is to ignore the health and safety in non-unionised small businesses. Therefore, this paper challenges existing OH&S research by investigating the compliance experiences of small businesses. The paper also demonstrates that small business employers are becoming increasingly reliant on their accountant to provide a range of compliance advisory services, including OH&S. However, the notion that small accounting firms act as ‘intermediary advisors’ between the OH&S regulatory agencies and the small business sector may influence the way in which regulatory agencies achieve OH&S compliance in small workplaces. Finally, the study reinforces the need for a more flexible approach to OH&S in the small business sector.

When non-standard work becomes precarious: Insights from the New Zealand call centre industry

The issue of precarious employment has gained increasing currency over recent years, as OECD countries have shifted away from traditional standard employment models. Nevertheless, there has been little empirical research on the experiences of nonstandard workers and the links that can be established with precarious work. This article attempts to address this gap by introducing precarious employment as a sub-set of non-standard work and highlighting its distinguishing features. The Tucker model is introduced as a useful bridge between non-standard work and precariousness, and is used as a framework for examining employment experiences within two New Zealand call centres. Initial observations indicate evidence of precariousness in both workplaces, although more severe in the case of the small, outsourced call centre. In-depth analysis suggests precariousness varies depending on the nature of the employment arrangement and questions are put forth about the applicability of the ?Tucker? model to the call centre context.

New Zealand Employment Relations: Between Individualism and Social Democracy

ABSTRACT This article details how New Zealand public policy changes have fostered employment relations arrangements which are dominated by workplace bargaining, individual employment agreements and atypical employment patterns. Against this background, there is an emphasis on the paradoxical results of public policy changes: so-called ‘deregulation’ facilitated an increase in the number of regulations in the 1990s and the recent support for collectivism in the Employment Relations Act 2000 has resulted, so far, in a decrease in the coverage of collective employment agreements. Labour market dynamics have overlaid public policy changes and there has been a growing importance of employee-driven flexibility, individualised career patterns and work-life issues. These changes and their positive and negative effects are illustrated by our case-study research of call centres. Overall, current New Zealand employment relations present a contradictory picture: there have been recent improvements in collective and individual employment rights and in labour market outcomes, but the hangover from the ‘neo-liberal experiment’ and its reductions in employment conditions still have a considerable impact.