It ain’t broke
National has ramped up the fight against the government’s plans to sabotage New Zealand’s employment relations law. We opposed the Employment Relations Amendment Bill that returned to the House by Select Committee, and have since lodged a series of changes that seek to overturn its worst provisions.
Business groups who made submissions were completely ignored, and have threatened to pursue a claim to the International Labour Organisation or International Court of Justice on the basis that parts of the Bill may breach international conventions. They’ve been running a ‘Fix the Bill’ campaign to take their concerns to ordinary New Zealanders.
National believes our employment law is worth fighting for. It is one of the foundations of New Zealand’s growth, and allows flexible, modern workplaces that can compete in a fast-changing global economy. Preserving our competitive advantages is critical, no more so than now when we have a government that seems intent on eroding hardearned gains. Business confidence is slumping, and both hiring and investment intentions have turned negative.
Over 10,000 jobs a month were created in the two years before the 2017 election. Since the election this has plummeted to 4000 a month.
The government should be focused on policies that help businesses grow and create jobs. It is doing the opposite — imposing ideologically-driven changes that add to business costs, hurt productivity, stifle innovation, and do nothing to improve the position of workers. By trying to take the country back to a time when adversarial unions could hold the country to ransom, Labour shows it hasn’t managed to modernise its thinking to keep pace with the modern world. Its lack of new ideas is reflected in the vast number of working groups set up in its first 10 months in government.
Our proposed changes would retain 90-day trials for all businesses; stop businesses from being forced into agreements with unions that would require a business in Auckland to pay the same wages as one in Timaru; ensure union officials have to get permission to enter a workplace; and ensure businesses don’t have to pay union delegates for union tasks during paid hours.
Labour’s planned changes are especially troubling for small business owners, who do their best to keep afloat, manage their costs and strive to grow, creating more jobs. They have the least ability to absorb the impact of costs outside their control, such as are implied by the proposed legislation.
We must push much harder to stop this government making one of its biggest economic mistakes — because it’s New Zealanders who will pay. We can’t allow the government to destabilise New Zealand’s industrial relations landscape for the sake of the union movement.
"National believes our employment law is worth fighting for. It is one of the foundations of New Zealand’s growth ... "