There’s been a lot of baloney in the media recently about the role (or control) of unions in Labour and a view that by supporting fairness at work means Labour must be anti-employer or anti-business. Mind you, none of this is new, but it’s reached a new peak of hysterical comment from some on the right with the PoAL dispute.
There’s no mystery about Labour’s values when it comes to working people. Our founding values are about decent Kiwi jobs, the right to a fair day‘s pay for a fair day’s work, the right to join unions and bargain collectively, the right to have a voice at work and the right to be protected from unfair or unsafe treatment at work. We believe that there must be a balance between work demands and family/community responsibilities.
This doesn’t mean business is harder to do – in fact decent wages and effective employment relations should enable New Zealand business to lift productivity, to perform well and to grow.
Labour supports decent work (which is also supported by the National government at the ILO) and fair incomes for all New Zealand working people - whether in low or middle income jobs, dependent contractors or self employed. I know that constructive workplace relationships are important and good management is crucial. I don’t believe all employers are “bad” and all employees “good”. You may be surprised how much sympathy I have with sole operators and small business who can barely make ends meet.
Some of the workers who get the rawest deal are those who are not in formal employment relationships, or in unions, such as self-employed and dependent contractors. Labour has been active in trying to make improvements for these Kiwis, but there’s nothing on the government’s agenda that makes any difference to them and a whole lot that will impact on all working Kiwis.
Consider these comments from backbench National Party MP Jami-Lee Ross :
Unions still occupy a privileged position in New Zealand’s employment law; a relic of the last Labour administration which has not seen significant overhaul for some years. Few non-government organisations can boast clauses in legislation specifically designed for their benefit. Despite only 18 percent of the nation’s workforce being unionised, trade unions can look to whole sections of the Employment Relations Act written exclusively to aid union survival through legislative advantage.
My question to Jami-Lee is whether the Minister of Labour, Kate Wilkinson, who likes to present her government’s approach to employment relations as “pragmatic” and “what works” agrees with Jami-Lee’s views. I want to know if she thinks unions are “privileged” and “relics”. If she does, she better tell Kiwi workers soon, and fess up to the ILO at her annual sojourn in Geneva this year that she doesn’t believe that unions are social partners anymore, leaving only employers and government – and that our government is opposed to international labour conventions and human rights conventions. That will be interesting.
National’s manifesto already boasts “reforms”, such as :
1. Minimum wage : consultation on the annual review has been completed and we can expect an announcement in February. $15 an hour? Don’t think so.
2. The government’s plan for a “starting out” rate for 16 and 17 year old workers and also for 18 and 19 year olds who have been on a benefit may be one of the early pieces of legislation in front of parliament.
3. National’s policy commitments to weaken collective bargaining – no requirement to conclude, no requirement for workers to be on the terms and conditions of a collective agreement for 30 days where one exists, and the effective abolishing of multi employer agreements, along with allowing pay reductions for “partial” strikes – such as go-slows, work to rule etc and a review of constructive dismissal.
Then there’s all of the rest :
Bills carried forward from the last parliament : Meals and rest breaks legislation (Kate Wilkinson said this was urgent a couple of years ago, but it’s been bumped) and Tau Henare’s Secret Ballot for Strikes members’ bill, which is neither needed nor wanted. The hardy annual of Easter Sunday Shop Trading will also be up again, via a National members’ bill.
The inquiry into the treatment of workers in Foreign Crewed Vessels in NZ waters and the Pike River Mine Commission of Inquiry will report back this year - both shameful NZ scandals that arose because of deregulation and declining standards for workers.
The ACC portfolio and the “opening up to competition” will be a big issue; Labour MP Andrew Little will take that on for Labour.
And I’m becoming more suspicious about another agenda – not spelled out in the National Party’s manifesto. The recent productivity commission report, for example, made some recommendations that, if taken up by this government, would have a huge impact on New Zealand working people.
Bottom line : none of this will help the wages of Kiwi workers catch up with Australia. None of it will stop the weekly exodus across the ditch.
I’m sorry, but unless we see some something other than the old hoary chestnuts of cutting workers’ rights and pay from National soon, you should get ready to say goodbye to more of your whanau.
Well Labour is happy to perpetuate the idea that everything National does is to benefit their donors – colloquially referred to as “John Key’s rich mates”, so I think it’s only fair that we should question whether Labour is acting in the interests of the Trade Unions who we know make up a good portion of Labour’s funding base.
“both shameful NZ scandals that arose because of deregulation and declining standards for workers”
When were these scandals carried out .. I don’t recall seeing them introduced in the last 3 years?
I want to see more posts like this from the Labour Party.
Posts that make it known the world is not dichotomous – eg employers = good, unions = bad, right = good, left = bad. That sort of thinking should have been left behind in the 19th century and has no place in modern New Zealand.
Posts that clearly articulate a world view that encompasses a set of values other than individualism, selfishness & greed.
Keep it up Darien.
excellent post darien.
@joel: and the trade unions are acting in the interests of working nz’ers to ensure safe working conditions and decent pay. therefore, labour would be acting in the interests of nz workers – and businesses actually do better when their workers are treated well. it sounds like you didn’t even read the post.
When I lecture students on Employment Law and the creation of Legislation I tell them if you want to know which major party rules in NZ look to the current employment law because t is the law most frequently changed dependent on ideological viewpoint. However no relationship is so black and white, let alone employment relationships.So rhetoric from both ideologies is unlikely to actually reflect or improve relationships in the workplace.
Funny, no one from the “right” has accused Lee-Ross of never having had a “real world” job.
@Tracey : well said.
“hardy annual” of Easter Sunday Shop Trading – was that a garden shop pun?
Those laws continue to be vital. Only essential services such as souvenir shops and hairdressers and Parnell Road are allowed to open. Thank goodness for that. There’s no reason to allow garden centres to trade at the beginning of the very best weekend of the year for planting stuff in your garden.
Great post Darien-we should be fighting for well paid jobs in New Zealand-not encouraging employers to compete with each other by being the worst employer in their industry. Closing the wage gap is critical-it is the only way New Zealanders will have independance-will increase the tax take-and reduce Government spending. Seems a no brainer.
as it is blatantly obvious to anyone with an iq above room temperature that the national party couldn’t give a tinkers damn about fairness and opportunity for the less well off in new zealand, we can confidently plan for spending large amounts on telephone bills in order to keep in touch with our families in australia, and anywhere else that skilled workers are valued in any way…..
despite trolls with the memories of goldfish(jabby)attempting rather pathetic distractions, the reality is there in plain sight…. tvnz, and the rest of the tory propaganda machine can’t hide the facts as i know them to be. which is that the only people i know who plan to stay here in new zealand are doing so for family reasons and no other….
to attempt to argue that this government has ANY plans, or policies designed to stimulate the economy by allowing sensible, forward thinking job creation to commence is to expose no more than ignorance of reality for the majority, and the sort of selfish idiocy that has dogged this countries proper development for longer than i have been alive….
there are much worse things than being called a sheepshagger, which is about as bad as it gets in oz… at least the government there has a clue or two about what “governing” actually means…. but then, we don’t have a real government.. we have a corporate branch office that takes it’s orders from a head office poulated by people? who have probably never even looked for new zealand on a map, let alone learnt a thing about the place…
@floyd, two differences between us and Australia, Population and they don’t get hysterical about mining they just do it. The result is massive incomes for thousands and the economic flow on is huge.
it isn’t just mining dave…. i meant what i said about australia having a government that knows what governing for australia, and it’s people means…..and they have used the income from mining well to diversify the number of income streams available to them….not something we can see happening at present…
selling off vital infrastructure to pay for tax cuts is NOT a method by which we will grow new income streams….and there certainly isn’t anything else on the govts agenda that will do that….
and they do get hysterical whenever their has been talk, or plans made by mining companies to mine sensitive areas…. fortunately, most of the minerals are situated in “wasteland”, or what is regarded as such…
there were some major battles fought between conservationists and the state and federal govts in the years i lived there….most of which the “tree huggers” won btw..
greater population density won’t solve any of our problems to be honest…. we just keep electing backward looking, self interested governments that have done no more than hinder our potential….
new zealand is still rather unique in many ways…. the methods we could employ to address the issue of how to move closer to our true potential as a society, given our particular conditions don’t necessarily have to follow any other countries methods…..
second try…..
new zealand is still rather unique in many ways…. the methods we could employ to address the issue of how to move closer to our true potential as a society, given our particular conditions don’t necessarily have to follow any other countries methods to be successful…..
indeed it has been argued that we would be better not to mimic policies, and actions that have demonstrably failed to achieve the desired results…. as long as the desired result was a stronger, more balanced society that is….
It is a strange world when workers that have a full time 40hrs job and overtime and reasonable health and safety standards and super are viewed as ‘privileged’. Shouldn’t that be the norm for all workers to aspire to?
So-organised workers are “relics” and ‘privileged’?, and dependent contractors and precarious workers (the working poor) are to be lauded? And of course the undeserving poor, beneficiaries and the redundant are to be bashed.
I don’t actually get this at all, and hope there is wider community support and action called for at POA to put these issues before other citizens in the strongest manner.
Dave they also committed genocide on their indigenous population, ought we do that cos they did it too?
bbfloyd, any chance you can post without the name calling hyperbole?
“as it is blatantly obvious to anyone with an iq above room temperature”
People who disagree with you do not necessarily have low IQs.
Hi Darien. You say “the right to a fair day‘s pay for a fair day’s work”. Can you confirm what your buddies at MUNZ, the Auckland stevodors, average wage was last year and how many hours they worked to earn this. I would like to know if this constitutes your version of “fair”.