Govt calls for submissions on Fair Pay Agreements

Likely sticking points in the Government's plan for national Fair Pay Agreements are becoming clearer, after the release of a public discussion document.

Key issues on which political wrangling can be expected include proposals that a “market test” be carried out after an agreement has been negotiated and before it is put in place, to ensure it does not contain undue economic risks, plus arguments over the proposed agreements’ industry or sector coverage and regional variability.

The long-awaited next step in the Government's labour law reforms was released yesterday by Workplace Relations Minister Iain LeesGalloway.

The discussion document from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment shows officials trying to balance the hopes and fears of unions and employer groups.

“The requirement [in FPA negotiations] to specify both occupation and sector, combined with the public interest test and representativeness test, should drive initiators to only include relevant occupations that could benefit from an FPA,” the document says.

The proposals suggest that either 1000 workers or 10 per cent of workers in an identified sector or industry, whichever is smaller, should be able to trigger FPA negotiation. Where there is evidence of ills such as worker exploitation or very low wages, a public interest test could be used instead of seeking workers' approval to negotiate.

Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff welcomed the discussion document, which seeks public submissions by November 27.

The CTU is targeting three lightly unionised, poorly paid groups — security guards, supermarket staff and cleaners — as the first priorities for FPAs.

“We are currently considering options for strengthening protections for contractors and it would make sense to include them in FPAs,” the discussion document says. Work on that issue would proceed in parallel with the FPA consultation process.

Hopes that perhaps one or two FPAs would be negotiated preelection appear to be fading. LeesGalloway would give no guarantees on timing this week, and NZ First Leader Winston Peters has said he expected it would take “a matter of months” to tie down policy detail.