BusinessNZ offers aid in negotiations
BusinessNZ has agreed to assist employers if they find themselves having to negotiate Fair Pay Agreements with unions.
Advocacy director Catherine Beard said if there was no other employer representative that was able and willing to take up the role of negotiating Fair Pay Agreements with unions, BusinessNZ would consider stepping into that role on a ‘‘case by case basis’’, in an apparent win for the Government.
The decision is likely to mean fair pay negotiations are less likely to end in stalemates that need to be settled by the Employment Relations Authority.
The Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA), which is part of the wider BusinessNZ network, expects to do most of the ‘‘heavy lifting’’ assisting employers, as it is the main centre of legal expertise within the group.
Fair Pay Agreements are designed to establish minimum pay and conditions for workers in in a whole sector.
Council of Trade Unions adviser Emily Rosenthal expects hospitality, supermarket and early childhood education workers, cleaners, security guards and bus drivers will be among those who may be ready to initiate negotiations as soon as the fair pay legislation takes effect on December 1.
BusinessNZ last year shunned the new collective bargaining regime by declining a Government offer that came with hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to become the default representative for employers in fair pay negotiations.
Beard said its announcement yesterday did not mean it had agreed to be a default negotiating party and it would still not be taking the government funding on offer. Commenting on whether that was nevertheless a win for the Government, Beard said its win came when the legislation was passed by Parliament.
The EMA (Employers & Manufacturers Association) said it, BusinessNZ, Business Central, the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce and Business South would continue to oppose the ‘‘compulsory, centralised wage bargaining system’’. But EMA chief executive Brett O’Riley said it had to put the interests of its members first and ‘‘would now engage with the legislation in order to assist its business members’’.
‘‘With the Employment Relations Authority having the power to set the terms of an FPA if no employer is available, we feel we need to step back into this mess,’’ he said. ‘‘The ERA consistently finds in favour of employees in more than 70% of hearings, so employers will have little faith in the ERA bargaining also from their corner.’’