Employee attitudes to workplace representation in New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis investigates the attitudes of New Zealand employees to their representation at work. Its core comprises four related papers. Data are drawn from the New Zealand Worker Representation and Participation Survey, a large-scale, random survey of New Zealand workers, and to a lesser extent the 1990-2002 New Zealand Election Study surveys. Unions cover a large minority of the workforce, but union members are largely concentrated in the public sector and private sector manufacturing and financial services. A large amount of unfilled demand for union representation exists, estimated at around one-third of employees in non-union workplaces. It is located disproportionately in secondary labour market workplaces. Non-union representation is more prevalent and effective than previous accounts have allowed. It is also mostly found in the public sector and private sector manufacturing and financial services. The mismatch between the supply of, and demand for, employee voice raises issues for public policy about equity and human rights in the workplace. This thesis reveals some scope for further unionisation. However, the indifference of the majority of workers in non-union workplaces, the complex nature of non-membership in unionised workplaces, and the location of willing potential members in workplaces that are difficult and costly to organise, requires innovative and radical responses from unions. Given their cultural and structural legacies, unions may not be able to adapt to meet these challenges. Public policy may need to promote the conditions for union organising, provide for alternative non-union representation, or ensure equity and voice in other ways, especially in the secondary labour market. This thesis emphasises the need to include “supply-side” factors in theory about union belonging. It shows that the low union density of younger workers results from structural rather than attitudinal factors and that the motivations of putative freeriders are complex and mixed. It provides a better understanding of the role of non-union representation and its effectiveness, challenging the prevailing view that non-union representation is ineffective. It also discusses the limitations of the research and makes recommendations for further research.