Best Kept Human Rights Secret Is Workers Rights

"The best kept human rights secret is that workers and union rights
are human rights under international law," said Council of Trade
Unions president Ross Wilson today. Ross Wilson said although New Zealand now had much more mainstream
industrial relations law with the Employment Relations Act, there
were still international conventions we did not comply with.

"The upcoming amendment to the Health and Safety in Employment Act
will allow New Zealand to comply with ILO Convention 155, which
promotes employee participation as the key to safe and healthy
workplaces," he said.

"But New Zealand workers are still waiting for the internationally
acknowledged right to have their medical costs met in full following
a workplace accident."

Ross Wilson said that New Zealands failure to ratify ILO convention
17, the Convention ensuring that medical costs would be met in full,
was a basic human rights issue.

"This Government is making progress in achieving the ratification of
ILO Convention 17, but unions will campaign hard until New Zealand
workers do not have pay for any of the cost of work-related accident
and illness," he said.