The approach of the New Zealand Business Rountable to labour relations issues has been based on an initial study, New Zealand Labour Market Reform, which was prepared in response to the Government's Green Paper on industrial relations and released in May 1986. A critique of the Government's policy decisions in the form of a submission on the Labour Relations Bill was released in March 1987. Following the passage of the Labour Relations Act, a summary of our analysis and views intended for the general reader was published in the booklet Freedom in Employment in June 1987.

In the two years since the initial study was undertaken, the basic themes have been developed in a number of speeches and statements. The principal items have been drawn together in this volume to provide a convenient point of reference for readers interested in further background to our thinking on this important topic.

In addition to statements made on behalf of the Business Roundtable, the collection also includes a paper, The New Zealand Labour Market in a Changing World Economy, by John Burton, Head of the Department of Economics and Public Policy at Leeds Polytechnic. This was written during a visit to New Zealand as a consultant to the Business Roundtable in July 1987.