Out: 90-day trial. In: meal, rest breaks
"Good employment law strikes a balance between employers and workers.'' Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-galloway
The 90-day trial will go and meal breaks will return for most Kiwi employees under sweeping changes to employment law brought in by the new Government.
But while more than 70 per cent of employees will be exempt from trial periods, more than 95 per cent of all New Zealand businesses will still be able to use them.
The Government will ban 90-day trial periods for any business with more than 19 employees.
The seemingly contradictory figures are due to 70 per cent of all New Zealand workers being employed by large businesses, which account for a small percentage of the total number of employers in New Zealand.
The controversial fire-at-will scheme, introduced by the last government, gave employers the right to dismiss workers without cause during a 90-day trial period.
Other employers will be able to access ‘‘probationary’’ periods, which have more controls on them than trial periods. While workers in probationary periods can still be fired at the end of the period, employers must have a fair reason that they have communicated to the employee.
The end of 90-day trials was announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as the first part of a legislative overhaul of employment laws, which mostly roll back changes to employment law brought in by the last National government.
The legislation will be introduced on Monday, and will have its first reading in early February.
It will also restore employee rights for rest and meal breaks, which were curtailed in 2015.
Exceptions will remain for employers working in essential services such as air traffic controllers where it is not practicable for employees to take breaks simultaneously, but these exceptions are expected to be quite limited.
‘‘Good employment law strikes a balance between employers and workers. Under the previous Government the balance tipped away from fair working conditions for workers. We will restore that balance,’’ Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-galloway said. Union changes
The bill will also bring in several changes to the law around collective bargaining.
Employers will once again have a duty to conclude collective bargaining unless there is a ‘‘good reason’’ not to.
Prospective employees will be provided with information about unions in the workplace and employers will have to pay union delegates for time spent reasonably representing other workers.
Collective agreements will be required to include pay rates or ranges for various levels of staff.
Unions will be able to access workplaces without gaining prior consent from an employer but will still need to come at reasonable times and not unduly interrupt business continuity.
New employees will again be required to be employed under terms consistent with any collective agreement for the first 30 days of their tenure.
‘‘Many of the changes in the bill are focused on lifting wages through collective bargaining. Wages are too low for many families to afford the basics. This Government believes everyone deserves a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work,’’ Lees-galloway said.
‘‘This legislation is the first step in the Government’s commitment to creating a highly skilled and innovative economy that provides good jobs, decent work conditions, and fair wages.’’
Ardern indicated earlier in the week that more controversial changes like ‘‘fair pay’’ laws would take more time.
‘‘We long flagged that was something we needed to spend extra time working alongside our union and business communities, so we are putting that on a longer track.’’
The party’s plan for sector-wide fair pay agreements has seen many business leaders worried about industry-wide strikes but Ardern has specifically ruled out allowing strike action to enforce fair pay agreements.
Ardern said changes to the 90-day trial period and meal breaks had been well signalled during the campaign.
Businessnz chief executive Kirk Hope said the changes would mean increased compliance for larger businesses, but were ‘‘reasonably pragmatic’’ in relation to small business.
Restricting the availability of 90-day trial periods to small businesses was a better outcome than removing them altogether.
‘‘Trial periods allow opportunities for an untried employee while reducing the ‘unfair dismissal’ risk to the employer of it not working out. This is a very real issue for small businesses,’’ Hope said.
The Council of Trade Unions welcomed the proposed changes as a ‘‘good start’’ but said they needed to go further.
“This legislation is a welcome change of direction from the ongoing erosion of employment rights that we saw under the last Government,’’ said president Richard Wagstaff.
“However we think it’s wrong that the fire-at-will law has not been fully repealed, and we will be making this clear as the legislation progresses through Parliament. People working for a small business should have the same basic rights at work as all New Zealanders.’’