Plan to kill rest, meal breaks a voter turnoff

IT was already clear that National Party leader Judith Collins didn't understand some of the effects of an imbalance of power.

She stated categorically that if she'd been in the Prime Minister's position, she wouldn't have sacked Iain LeesGalloway from his ministerial portfolios for having an affair with a staff member in his Workplace Relations ministry. Sadly, while most people accept that an imbalance of power makes an affair between a doctor and their patient always unacceptable, a number, Ms Collins apparently among them, have difficulty seeing that the same issue can be present in an employment relationship and make truly free consent difficult.

Surely, though, most voters (or, at least, those who are employees) will see through her recent Small Business Policy announcement. Not content with planning to reintroduce the ability of all employers to fire a new employee without process in the first 90 days of their employment (at present only those with fewer than 20 employees may do so — perhaps Ms Collins should have saved that announcement for a Medium to Large Business Policy launch) she has promised that a National government would abolish mandatory meal and rest breaks for employees.

She explained that ‘‘National believes in a flexible [that's a weasel word], productive workplace where workers get a fair deal and businesses are productive. National supports an approach where employees and employers are trusted to work employment matters out themselves in good faith’’.

That sounds like the rhetoric supporting the employment law changes enacted by Jim Bolger's Nationalled government, in the 1990s. Those changes disempowered unions and gutted workers' negotiating power; as Brian Easton has shown it didn't improve longterm productivity; contributed to New Zealand's lowwage economy (praised, shamefully, as a competitive advantage by a later National Finance Minister); and increased inequality.

Mr Bolger has regretted the results of that legislation, and the working group he chaired recommended the introduction of Fair Wage Bargaining to ensure minimum standards.

In the unregulated environment Ms Collins wants employers would have much more negotiating power than employees, whose only weapon to pressure employers would be withdrawal of labour. When a pandemic has led to widespread job losses and unemployment, that weapon is illusory, and employees are powerless.

Sadly, it's unrealistic to trust that employment matters will always be sorted out fairly and in good faith. Many employers will try to treat their staff well, but there'll always be unscrupulous employers (for instance, some fibre rollout contractors), and their competitive advantage can lead to a race to the bottom in pay (thank goodness for minimum wage regulations, but National's considering blocking planned increases) and conditions.

Removal of the legislative requirement for meal and rest breaks will allow desperate employers or those without a conscience not to provide them. That may, in the very short term, increase productivity, though evidence suggests that such an attitude reduces productivity in the long run. But it'll be bad for employees and their families, and bad for New Zealand.

To be fair to Ms Collins, she probably knows perfectly well that there's a power imbalance between employer and employee in workplace negotiations. It must be obvious to anyone with any intelligence, and she's not unintelligent.

Is her trust in all employers doing the right thing due to a Pollyannalike attitude that naively expects everyone to behave well without regulation? But that doesn't fit with her brutal summary of her own intentions on becoming party leader: ‘‘To crush the other lot’’.

Does she, rather, believe such a power imbalance to be right and proper, part of the natural order (as in Mrs Alexander's 1848 hymn: ‘‘The rich man in his castle/The poor man at his gate/God made them high and lowly/ And ordered their estate’’)? That employees should be grateful they have a job, whatever its conditions, because employers have an unfettered right to dictate terms to their employees?

Will employees vote for a party with that approach to employment law? Do turkeys vote for Christmas?