6. Kinds of Employment Relationships
The Employment Relations Act covers a range of topics including:
Recruiting, and selecting the right candidate for the job.
Writing employment agreements.
Trial and probation periods.
Union membership.
Workplace training and development.
The object of the Act is to maintain fair and productive relationships between employers and their employees.
It achieves this by promoting the notion of ‘good faith’ workplace relations based on:
recognising that employment relationships must be built on mutual trust and confidence as well as certain legislative or legal protections
understanding that there is a degree of inequality of power in employment relationships that needs to be mutually understood
respecting the integrity of individual choice
promoting mediation as the primary problem-solving mechanism – reducing the need for judicial intervention.