Employment Relations Law Reform

The government is currently considering amendments to our employment law. Several of these amendments are important to promote good employment relationships. Others provide protection for vulnerable workers at times of uncertainty. The CTU response to the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill is summarised in the news stories below.

Read the CTUs message to New Zealand:
"Theres work to be done, together." (pdf, 77kb).

Background Information

Find out why amendments are needed to our employment law... [Read More].

Factsheets

• Fact Sheet 1: Why the employment law needs to change
• Fact Sheet 2: What unions want for all workers
• Fact Sheet 3: Business lobby groups
• Fact Sheet 4: What unions are doing to win
• Fact Sheet 5: Employment relations and the economy

National Takes Extremist Position on Changes to Labour Law

In committing the National Party to repeal the Employment Relations Bill, its leader Don Brash is clearly saying 'don't vote for me if you want fairness at work', Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said today.
Don Brash has committed to repealing the Employment Relations Act amendments which have been reported back in a select committee report tabled in Parliament today. "One of Don Brashs current themes is that Australian workers earn 25 per cent more than their New Zealand counterparts," Ross Wilson said. "But he fails to acknowledge that Australia has maintained a strong industrial relations system which has enabled workers to get pay increases." Australian workers have also had four weeks annual leave for years, and National intends to deny New Zealand workers that gain as well. "It is clear that Don is both a Scrooge and an extremist when it comes to laws which help to ensure that working people can get a fair share of the growth New Zealand business has been enjoying for several years. "The CTU represents almost 300,000 working New Zealanders who will note that he has once again committed to attack their basic rights at work if he becomes Prime Minister next year. "The choice is becoming increasingly clear."

From the President

The Council of Trade Unions has welcomed the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill as a significant attempt to address the shortcomings of the Employment Relations Act as it has worked in practice for more than three years.

But the CTU is strongly of the view that the Bill needs further strengthening and the 77-page CTU submission on the ERLR Bill contains 30 pages of detailed amendments which would improve the Bill.

When the Employment Relations Act came into force in 2000, we said at the time that it was a modest law. But it was a significant break with the past and the anti-worker Employment Contracts Act of 1991.

Three years experience has shown that our assertion that the ERA was a modest and moderate law was correct.

And even that modest and moderate law has been undermined by Court of Appeal decisions and sophisticated legal strategies developed by employers.

The good faith provisions of the ERA have proved to be inadequate to challenge strategies by employers who:

• Actively induce workers not to join unions by promising them the benefits of union deals regardless of whether they join the union?.the freeloader problem
• Go through the motions of bargaining without any intention of agreeing to a collective agreement
• Deliberately undermine collective bargaining when the clear object of the Act is to promote collective bargaining.

Unions have worked very hard over the past three years to try and make the Act work but we are not gaining ground in collective bargaining.

Amendments are necessary to address these inadequacies in the law.

Ross Wilson
President
NZ Council of Trade Unions

Wide Support Expected for ERA Report

The select committee report on the amendments to the Employment Relations Act is expected to reflect wide consensus over proposals which "fine-tune" the law, Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said today.
The report on the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill is to be tabled in Parliament this afternoon. "There has been extensive consultation with the CTU and Business NZ and a fairly broad consensus has emerged around a substantial number of the core amendments," Ross Wilson said. "The CTU is disappointed that the Bill will not significantly strengthen multi-employer bargaining, but welcomes the move to allow arrangements between employers and unions to address free-loading." Such an amendment would reverse the effect of the recent Court of Appeal decision in the Fonterra/Dairy Workers Union case, Ross Wilson said. It would also reflect international law under ILO conventions. "Overall the CTU looks forward to the amended Employment Relations Act coming into effect in December. "It will make a real difference to many groups of workers who cant get a fair go in bargaining."