Contracting Out Law Urgently Needed

The urgent need for New Zealand law to ensure protections for some of our most vulnerable workers was highlighted at the International Labour Organisation Conference in Geneva yesterday.

In a speech to the ILO, Darien Fenton, vice president of the Council of Trade Unions and the New Zealand workers' delegate to the conference spoke of the urgent need for legislation to ensure there are protections for workers when their firm is sold, or work is transferred or contracted out.

"Of immediate concern are the many workers in the cleaning and catering sectors who face a constant process of competitive tendering by firms with the result that their wages and conditions are bid downwards in a process that seems to know no end," Darien Fenton told ILO delegates.

" It is no coincidence that many of them are women, Maori and Pacific peoples."

Darien Fenton acknowledged the New Zealand government had done a lot to improve the situation for workers, but said it was now time for the government to act on their promises in this area because the workers seeking this protection are among the most vulnerable in our labour force.

"I hope, on behalf of New Zealand workers, that the next time workers address the International Labour Conference, we will be able to report that the government had acted to address this important issue," she said.

CTU president Ross Wilson said the Minister of Labour had in the past few days reconfirmed the government's intention to continue working toward a solution after the elections.