Overseas actors working on The Hobbit films are still protected by union agreements negotiated abroad but New Zealand film production staff have been "stripped of their rights", Associate Prof Ian McAndrew, of the University of Otago, says.
Public debate is continuing over employment law changes made by the Government in 2010, giving film employers the option to classify film production staff as "independent contractors", rather than employees, able to bargain collectively.
Prof McAndrew, of the university's management department, and Associate Prof Martin Risak, of Vienna University, Austria, have analysed the controversy in a co-authored article, titled "Shakedown in the Shaky Isles: Union Bashing in New Zealand", which was recently published in the United States-based Labour Studies Journal.
"It is ironic that actors coming to New Zealand to work on The Hobbit project work under the union-negotiated contracts of their home countries, supplemented by any individual 'personal services' contracts," the article said.
"It is only New Zealand film-production workers who have been stripped of their rights."
The deregulation of part of New Zealand's labour market in "such an unconventional and radical way" provided "a model" for application to other sectors in future, the article warned.
The story behind this law change "reads like a multiscene play on how a powerful American entertainment industry conglomerate was able to take advantage of a union's strategic missteps to pressure a small country into not only substantial tax breaks and subsidies, but also a fundamental change to its employment laws".
The New Zealand Actors Equity campaign over collective-agreement negotiations had been "ill-advised" and the union's involvement with the Australian-based Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance was "probably a strategic mistake", the article said.
Prof McAndrew said in an interview he expected controversy to continue over The Hobbit-linked law changes.
CTU president Helen Kelly said the situation arising from the law change was "wrong" and public debate would continue.
Economic Development Minister Gerry Brownlee said New Zealand enjoyed a "great set-up here" for film-making, including a "brilliant industry" and an internationally respected director in Sir Peter Jackson.
Some union critics had suggested the earlier Hobbit-related union dispute had been virtually resolved, before the Government had changed the law in 2010.
In fact, the overseas film-makers involved still had concerns, and other governments had already "tapped them on the shoulder", seeking to have the two-part movie transferred elsewhere, including to London.
The Government already spent many millions of dollars a year on tourism-related promotions and had acted to ensure the highly valuable films continued to be made in New Zealand, for the benefit of the New Zealand industry.
Mr Brownlee took issue with claims the Government had not been transparent, although some privacy had been needed to undertake negotiations.
"Everyone knows we took steps to get the movie here."
