Registered settlements and wage flexibility in the New Zealand private sector: 1984-1988

Abstract

Labour market flexibility has been the labour relations catch-phrase of the late 1980s. A 1986 OECD report argued that economic efficiency would serve individual welfare and social progress and that such efficiency would be facilitated by labour market flexibility, defined as the ability of individuals in the labour market to abandon established ways and adapt to new circumstances. The report identified six components of labour market flexibility : labour costs; conditions of employment; work practises and work patterns; rules and regulations; mobility; and education and training (OECD, 1986). Consequent work by the OECD Secretariat has led to reports on labour market flexibility in various countries (Brunhes 1988, and Rojot, 1989). These comparative reports have handled the issue of labour market flexibility in terms of five components: external numerical flexibility; practices of "externalisation"; internal numerical flexibility;functional flexibility;and wage flexibility.