December, 2003

"The improvements in the new Holidays Act are clear examples of gains won by the union movement which benefit all New Zealanders," Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said today.

It may be because they are taking long holidays that the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) doesn't have time to prepare submissions on the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill, Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said today.

A group of cleaners and other low-paid and vulnerable workers are expected at Parliament today to support the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill, says Council of Trade Unions secretary Carol Beaumont.

Today's 55th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a timely reminder about fundamental human rights at work, says Council of Trade Unions secretary, Carol Beaumont.

Changes in employment law have provoked hysterical reactions from some employer organisations, who seem stuck in a mindset that workers are the enemy, rather than one of their most valuable assets, the Council of Trade Unions president, Ross Wilson, said today.

"Changes to the Employment Relations Act announced by the Government are modest but useful proposals to what's always been a modest law," Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said today.

The Service & Food Workers Union (SFWU) says that history has been made with the announcement of a proposed law that will provide protection for vulnerable workers in situations of contracting out and sale of business.

New Zealand's largest union today congratulated the Government on proposed changes to the Employment Relations Act which will protect some of the most vulnerable workers in society, but says it will continue campaigning over freeloaders and industry-wide bargaining.

"The inclusion in proposed changes to the ERA of a Code of Employment Practice for strikes in the health sector singles out health sector workers such as nurses, and removes rights even the ECA did not attack," Nurses Organisation CEO Geoff Annals said today.

"Were pleased to see the consistent, if modest, progress being made by this Labour Government in developing an employment law that attempts to work for employers, workers and the economy," said Andrew Casidy, General Secretary of the bank workers union, Finsec.

PSA welcomes the changes to the Employment Relations Act proposed by
the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill, as the Act in its original
form needs to be strengthened, PSA national secretary Richard
Wagstaff said today.