We have a lot of nice labour protections (esp compared to the US, yikes) but ofc this means business goes around them (and current parties are discussing rolling them back to 'support small businesses' from having to do that).

It's really hard to fire a worker under contract unless they straight up abandon their job or violate their contract. If youre bad at your job, but not dangerous, its so hard to fire you (and taking you off shifts, ie: constructive dismissal, is also prohibited) that you'll basically be sticking around anyway.

But that means that employers just hire part-timers to work juuuuust under the requirements, or have them on the 90-day probationary period and oop sorry, I don't think it's a great fit. The results is that job stability is pretty good if you can actually fucking get one, but most younger Kiwis are stuck in casual work or move overseas.