Working Time and the Application of Penal Rates of Pay: A Gender and Industry Analysis in the 1993/94 Year

Abstract

New Zealand employers have followed the international drive for greater internal numerical flexibility and associated changes to working time patterns. In the post Employment Contracts Act era, the thrust of changes for internal numerical flexibility has been directed at the removal of and reduction in penal and overtime rates of pay. At the Fifth Conference on Labour, Employment and Work in 1992 (LEW5) the authors reported on the early developments in collective bargaining arrangements over working time that had been identified from a sample of collective employment contracts. At this 1994 conference (LEW6) the authors will update that data, reporting the latest trends and developments in the working time area. The database from which the paper will be written contains some 2200 'live' collective employment contracts covering some 11,500 employers and 340,000 employees. Changes to working time arrangements are very much industry specific and the data will be reported by industry. A particular focus of the paper will be the effects of changes to working time arrangements on women employees.