Scaremongers don’t say good employers will be fine

The changes this Government is making to employment law will make working people’s lives better. Bringing back rest and meal breaks means the unlucky few with employers who took them away, will get them back.

Restoration of union access means that working people who have experienced difficulty with their employer’s willingness to see them fairly represented will know they have better support. And reinstating protections for vulnerable workers during contracting changes means low-income people won’t have their incomes cranked down through competitive tendering.

You may have noticed a pattern. Most changes simply return things to how they were before the previous Government eroded basic rights.

Also, these changes are focused on a small group of truly bad employers who have used that erosion of rights to squeeze their workforce harder.

The vast majority of employers won’t even notice a difference once these laws are enacted. The majority of employers are reasonable people who, despite the law, have been providing decent meal breaks, have a good relationship with staff representatives, and don’t base their business model on cutting wages.

Like almost every other law on our books, employment law is there to deal with the lowest common denominator. Sadly, that’s needed.

Just last week the ex-owner of Christchurch businesses Watershed Bar and Restaurant, and restaurant Sequoia 88 was banned from hiring staff for three years for continual breaches of the law including unlawfully trying to confiscate holiday pay. On a larger scale we’ve seen Affco unlawfully lock workers out from their jobs and livelihoods.

Any union official can tell you horror stories about mistreatment of people at work by “frequent flyer” employers. The kind of business manager or owner who causes disproportionate trouble for working people also eats up union and government hours in cleaning up their mess.

Those union delegates and organisers also have positive relationships with most employers. The average business had no issues in complying with the law before the last Government’s changes.

What baffles me about some of the more absurd scaremongering over these changes is they’re not representing the views of the majority of business. The wailing from a few groups claiming to represent all business operators makes it look like most employers are opposed to fairness at work. This isn’t so. Moreover, the changes won’t impact how the majority do business.

In the last few months since the prospect of improved employment law became a reality, I’ve had businesses actually express their desire for better employment law. It turns out that, for many, a race to the bottom on terms and conditions has been part of a larger race to the bottom for business sustainability.

The common refrain in many established and respected businesses is that they are sick of competing with cowboys and fly-by-night operators who undercut wages and quality, have no long-term stake in the market and put whole industries at risk.

Put simply, good employers — the majority — stand to gain from tightening of the law. They’re already meeting these standards, but will no longer be disadvantaged in the marketplace because they appreciate and invest in their workforce.

Levelling the playing field for good employers who possess a long-term sustainable vision is a step towards developing a highly skilled and fairly paid workforce nationwide. For those who believe in a high-wage, highproductivity future for New Zealand, repairing our employment law makes sense. I’m not surprised many businesses think so too.

Richard Wagstaff

is president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.