THE RE-REGULATION OF FARMING EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN NEW-ZEALAND

The re-regulation of farming employment relations is outlined against a background of worldwide new right market-led economic policies which have generated a search for labour market and job 'flexibility.' Afte r several decades of exclusion - by several different governments - of this sector from the main system of industrial relations, the current legislation returns the country to an essentially free market/common law situation with a code of minimal terms with which employers are ex pected to comply. Collective action by labour is being discouraged as a matter of public policy. Exploratory research on employment contract s established since the passage of the Act and the effects of the legi slation on trade unions with largely rural memberships are analysed. C omparisons are made with developments in Western Europe.