Beyond its more controversial bargaining and contracting provisions, New
Zealand's Employment Contracts Act 1991 incorporated procedures for the
resolution of rights disputes centred in an Employment Tribunal, newly estab
lished by the Act as a 'low-level, informal, specialist' body to provide 'speedy,
fair, and just resolution of differences between parties to employment con
tracts'. This paper assesses the performance of the tribunal and finds that it
has gained broad acceptance. Nonetheless, parties to tribunal proceedings
continue to encounter some delays and are experiencing increasing costs and
formality. The paper examines the reasons for these problems.
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