23 June 2006 Probationary employment: Who benefits?

When the National Government was voted out in 1999 one of its policies which voters signalled their opposition to was the Employment Contracts Act 1991. That was repealed by the Labour-Alliance Coalition and replaced with the Employment Relations Act 2000.

Now a National Member of Parliament is proposing 90-day probationary employment which could be terminated by an employer or employee without any good reason or 'due process'. This is said to help small business employers.

The French have recently had to modify such a proposal after major student demonstrations, while in New Zealand we have seen 'Unite', a new union for youth workers, taking to the streets over youth rates of pay. Could it be that probationary employment will arouse similar passion?

What does probationary employment mean for you? Trying to get a new job, you would not be certain you had got one until three months after you started. That will make paying off your student loan less certain!

Want to find out more? Take the Lincoln University paper BMGT 215/215R Employment Relations and Personnel Management this coming semester (starts 3 July) for the full story – and a lot more about managing staff in a small business. Many graduates will be doing just that!

Some 95 percent of New Zealand businesses are small or medium sized (less than 50 employees), and Human Resource Management, as done for larger corporate businesses, may not be entirely appropriate. For example, few of them have specialist HRM staff, so the normal managers have to cope.

The Lincoln University paper BMGT 215/215R has been designed with small businesses in mind and can be studied both on campus or in your home location through Lincoln University's Regional Education/distance learning mode.

The paper was the first 200-level subject to go into distance mode and is particularly appropriate for students who want a subject that will give them immediately useful/essential skills in managing staff. It has an innovative assessment programme based on a subject journal, drawing out the student's own work experience etc.; a work life history based on an interview with someone who has been an employee; and the final exam. It has also been approved for Employment Relations Education Leave by the Department of Labour.

Dr Rupert Tipples, Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations, Agriculture Group, Agriculture and Life Sciences Division, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand