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The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between reflexive regulation and occupational health and safety (OHS) in small businesses and discuss several related issues relevant to achieving OHS improvements. Recognising the importance of small businesses in post-industrial economies, the paper addresses difficulties in applying modern regulatory strategies to small businesses, when the duty-holders responsible for safeguarding and promoting the health and safety of their workers within them, often lack both the will and the means to do so. We begin with an outline of the characteristics of the small business sector and the key factors that contribute to their resistance to regulation of health and safety. We argue that such factors must be viewed, not as specific problems in relation to health and safety, but as part of the much wider social and economic context in which work takes place in small businesses. We also assert that before effective regulatory strategies aimed at this sector can be developed, it is necessary to understand the contexts that limit or promote compliance. We then present a brief outline of some of the features of modern regulation and some of the problematic issues in its application to small businesses. One aspect that is of particular interest is that in most countries where OHS legislation focuses on risk management, the style of management sought is largely a participative one. This is yes in all countries of the European Union as well as in Australia. Yet in these same countries and in contrast with this ethos, approaches to regulating health and safety in small businesses are typically addressed exclusively to the employer alone. Notions of participation, if they exist at all, are usually couched in terms of a direct relationship between the employer and employees, supposedly facilitated by the absence of the formal barriers conventionally associated with increased workplace size and managerial complexity. While such informality and close relations between employer and their workers are certainly features of small businesses, it is far less certain that they work to enhance participatory approaches to health and safety arrangements. Indeed there is much evidence to suggest that in many cases they have the opposite effect, since within the `structures of vulnerability' with which workers in small businesses are often surrounded, such closeness vastly reduces their willingness and ability to challenge the assumptions and prerogatives of their employers. Further exploration of this apparent paradox leads us to the idea that participatory approaches, like much of the other tenets of self-regulation, cannot operate effectively in these situations without additional supports within the social, economic and regulatory scenarios in which work in small businesses is undertaken. In the final part of the paper, therefore, we explore what are the kinds of structural and procedural supports that are relevant to enhancing and improving small businesses' compliance with health and safety regulation generally and more specifically, their compliance with the participatory risk management approaches that we have argued to be typical of the ethos of modern OHS regulation. To do so we draw on a number of examples of regulatory/para-regulatory approaches and the intermediary actors and processes they harness to aid implementation and dissemination of improvements in OHS in different countries. We review what is known about the positive supports for such approaches both within small businesses and from their wider social and economic environment. We further consider the barriers and constraints to applying such reflective approaches to risk management in small businesses that have so far been identified internationally.

There are a number of current debates about the enforcement of occupational health and safety of aircrew and about their levels of injury and illness. The impetuses for these debates are the regulatory reforms of occupational health and safety taking place in both New Zealand and overseas. This paper aims to provide an informed response to this discourse on the health and safety of aircrew by drawing on a number of sources. The paper presents a critique of the legislation governing the health and safety of aircrew and of the industry's response to possible legislative reforms. The paper also analyses civil aviation safety practices both nationally and internationally, and will argue that civil aviation authorities are not necessarily the best agencies to enforce and promote occupational health and safety in the airline industry.

Precarious employment is an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in contemporary labour markets. Research on the call centre industry has not only identified a growing use of non-standard employment arrangements, but also evidence to indicate that precariousness may be a feature of employment in this industry. Despite this evidence, however. There is still little known about the extent to which precarious employment is an integral part of the NZ call centre context. In addition, there has been scant research on the individual experiences of non-standard workers employed in the call centre industry. This paper aims to address the gaps in the literature by essentially 'marrying' these three broad areas of research. A framework for measuring precariousness is introduced and examined in relation to two case study call centres, selected to facilitate a comparative approach. Based on in-depth interviews with case study participants and key stakeholders, this paper examines the applicability of this framework to the NZ call centre context. Key findings from the study indicate that precarious employment is indeed a phenomenon that affects non-standard workers in the NZ call centre industry. A number of policy concerns are raised through the data, particularly where the incidence of precarious employment is associated with the lack of organisational compliance with employment legislation.

As part of a government initiative, the Department of Labour's Workplace Productivity Working Group has been charged with the task of stimulating debate and broadening the discourse on workplace productivity. The Department of Labour has also supported research into how New Zealand businesses are responding to the productivity challenges they face. The paper presents findings from two studies that were part of this research agenda. In particular, the paper reports on the experiences of individual business case studies, (predominantly SMEs), of introducing and maintaining initiatives designed to raise workforce productivity. Analysis of the data reveals a number of key themes: catalysts and drivers for change; distinctive characteristics of high performing firms; differing characteristics of the case studies; and barriers to introducing productivity initiatives and some solutions. The findings also indicated that in practice, efficiency increased both though innovation and a realignment of activities, with higher value added than those conducted in the past. However, there is an inherent tension with these and other similar studies that cannot easily be resolved. On one hand, employers are striving to obtain increased worker performance and gain more productivity while on the other hand they are driving their employers to wok longer, harder and more effectively often in extremely hazardous conditions. Thus, it would appear that efforts to increase productivity can have contradictory results.

While the rights of New Zealand adult workers have been the primary concern of successive governments and their agencies, the rights of child workers have often been overshadowed. With the recent Government report to the United Nations on New Zealand released, the issues surrounding New Zealand young workers have come to the fore and now require further investigation. The purpose o f this paper is to report on Phase One o f ongoing research into the working lives and experiences of New Zealand children (thoseunder18years). Drawing on existing academic literature as well as government and non-governmental organisations' (NGO) reports and statistics, the paper will present an overview of the status of New Zealand children in terms of the minimum working age; the minimum wage rates; and occupational health and safety standards. Finally, the paper will outline areas of future research.