Employment Relations in the New Zealand Public Health Sector - A Survey

The New Zealand Public Health sector has undergone significant political, Legislative and managerial changes since 1986. These changes have had a major impact on the nature of employment relations in the sector. The unified, state sector industrial relations regime has been restructured and replaced a by diverse set of practices. Many of the changes of the last decade have had time to 'mature' and become embedded into the system and it now seems appropriate to start to identify issues that have arisen from the impact of the new regime of employment relations. This paper presents the results of a survey of related public health sector organisations including employers, unions, professional organisations, statutory bodies and funding agencies. Five distinct areas for future employment relations research, with varying Levels of priority, were identified by the respondents including; 1) Workforce development and planning. 2) The nature, scope and negotiation of employment contracts. 3) The problematic of people management of largely 'professional ' group of workers. 4) Relationships with external organisations such as the 'NZQA 'and the 'Health and Disability Commissioner' and the impact on internal employment relations. 5) The effects of uncertainty about current health care delivery structures and possible further politically directed restructuring are having on employment relations.