Welcome and Overview

Kia ora! Welcome to the Employment Relations paper 801. We hope you will enjoy discovering useful skills and knowledge.

This course gives you an understanding of the New Zealand employment relations framework. Our journey explores employment relationships, bargaining for employment agreements, and disputes and grievances resolution.

Find out more...

Feeling stuck? There are team forums for every task, but you may have a question, a concern, or something to share that is not related to the team forums. If it is confidential, you are welcome to contact your tutor. It would be great if you could share anything else with the whole team because they may have similar questions or concerns. Use the ‘With a little help from your friends’ forum for this.

Are you ready?

Let’s have some fun while we get to know each other. This icebreaker will lead you to your online discussion forum. Find out what you need to do...

In business we work together to complete tasks. Now that you know yourself better, find out who is in your team. We will be using online forums to ‘talk’ to our classmates. This is our ‘virtual classroom’. Let’s meet each other in the ‘Who’s who’ forum.

We cannot see facial expressions or hear voice tone when we are ‘talking’ online, so if online discussions are new to you, you might like to read...

Our past

Employment relations sit within a political, social, and economic context. Economic pressures such as inflation, recession, depression, and unemployment affect working conditions. Social and ethical influences reflect society’s changing attitudes, and various political ideologies have also shaped the work environment. Our radio gives us an historical overview of some significant events that have helped shape our industrial situation...

What are employment relationships?

Who is in the mix?

Employment relationships are the interactions of the major players in the workplace. This interrelationship is vital – none of the players exists within a vacuum. Your office has an address book for these people. Let’s have a look...

Assessing a workplace – working affairs?

Naturally Baking Ltd is a small company distributing organic baking goods. The activities and tasks you complete will help you identify and provide realistic solutions for the company’s employment relationship issues. But first, let’s find out about the company...

Learning about Naturally Baking’s workplace introduces us to relevant legislation and shows us some employment issues. Analysing this workplace will help you with the team task and assessment. Check out this video...

You can’t get far without finding out about the Employment Relations Act and the Human Rights Act. Tu’s got some advice for you.

Looks like management has a few more issues. What to do?

It takes two to tango. Let’s have a look at the Naturally Baking workers’ issues.

Employment legislation and policy is not always easy to understand. Here, we have simplified it for you. You can click on the drawers in the filing cabinet to get easy-to-read legislation and information relevant to employment relations.

You don’t need to know everything in the legislation at one time. A little bit goes a long way. This web hunt takes you to the main employment relations websites and shows you the essential gems. Find out how to go hunting for your treasure.

Analysing workplace issues takes some practice. Working together helps you look at issues differently while sharing knowledge. This team task will help you to complete your assessment. Join in!

Negotiating individual employment agreements

Knowing what needs to be included in an employment agreement is essential to negotiating one. Let’s find out what our employment consultant thinks.

The next activity will help you create an individual employment agreement and understand the compulsory and optional elements.

We’ve made a sample individual employment agreement. Which do you think are the compulsory elements in the agreement? Email your answer to your tutor.

Negotiating good outcomes for an employment agreement requires a lot of skill. Watch this scene at Naturally Baking and observe the negotiation skills used, and the issues and processes involved.

Knowing how best to negotiate is made easier by following the golden rules. This activity will help you negotiate better outcomes. Find out what you need to do...

Negotiating collective employment agreements

Negotiating a collective employment agreement can get a bit tricky. You need to know the process. Let’s have a look at how the Human Resource Consultant outlines the issues for Naturally Baking’s managers.

Developing a negotiation strategy, style, and ground rules makes things run much more smoothly. Tu and Dave have some good ideas.

There’s a lot to know about bargaining, isn’t there? We have outlined relevant information on the top shelf of the bookcase in your office.

Let’s find out what we know about the bargaining process by doing a team task. Find out what you need to do for the task, then join your team’s forum.

The Future...

What might employment relations be like in the future? Let’s get into our time capsule and fly through the years to have a look at the future industrial situation. Your newspaper tells the story...

Grievances and Disputes

Understanding how grievances and disputes are resolved is essential to employment relations. In the next activities you will analyse a grievance and a dispute, understand the difference between the two, and understand the process for resolution.

Grievances

What’s a personal grievance? Let’s hear from the aggrieved...

Now let’s hear what the aggressor has to say...

Look for information about grievances and disputes on the second and third shelves of your office bookcase.

Disputes

Without a few pointers, navigating your way through a dispute process can be like driving along a rocky road. Let’s have a look at how the Human Resource Consultant outlines the issues for the Naturally Baking Human Resource Manager.

If things go wrong, we need to know about mediation and the disciplinary process. Tu’s calling with some more advice.

Let’s find out what we know about disputes and grievances in our team task. Read what you need to do for the task and then join your team’s forum.

Congratulations! You have completed the course.