Workplace bill returns

The controversial workplace relations bill which will end 90-day trials for big companies will get its second reading in Parliament this week.

The bill was backed by Labour and the Greens but NZ First signalled some discomfort, with Winston Peters describing it as a ‘‘work in progress’’. However, it is understood that the parties have worked out some level of compromise in order for NZ First to fully support the bill.

Just what those compromises are should be revealed when the bill is reintroduced today.

The bill, which passed its first reading with support from all three Government parties, ends 90-day trials for larger employers, restores the right to tea and meal breaks, and grants unions much more access and power in the workplace.

Much of the bill reverts the law back to where it was when Labour was last in office in 2008. When the bill was returned from select committee without many changes in September, NZ First MPs expressed some level of disquiet, with Peters describing it as a ‘‘work in progress’’.

The shadow-boxing over the bill reached the point where unions wrote to Peters demanding that the bill be left intact. The party had already won a compromise before the bill was introduced – Labour had campaigned on ending 90-day trials for all employers, but will now only end them for employers with more than 20 staff.

NZ First MPs were particularly worried about two segments of the bill to do with unions the the MPs perceived would hurt rural small businesses.

One clause would allow union delegates to enter workplaces without the consent of the employer, although it specifically says this does not apply if the workplace is a private home, as is the case with farmers. But this has sparked outcry from the business sector, particularly for businesses which operate workplaces with health and safety hazards.

Another clause gave businesses negotiating with MultiEmployment Collective Agreements (MECAs) a duty to try to conclude those negotiations in ‘‘good faith’’. Business lobby groups have argued that this will force businesses into bad sectorwide deals that might not work for their businesses – for example, forcing similar employees to be paid the same in Gore as they are in Auckland. But official advice on the bill says it still allows businesses to pull out of MECAs if they have begun negotiations in good faith.

‘‘Essentially what we are expecting is a significant improvement of the rights of working people and the right to organise,’’ Council of Trade Unions head Richard Wagstaff said.

National workplace relations spokesman Scott Simpson said his party would need to ‘‘wait and see’’ what condition the new bill would be in, but he was still expecting his party would be dead-set against it.

A spokesman for Workplace Relations Minister Iain LeesGalloway declined to comment.