A collective of 49 unions, lawyers, NGOs, academics, former Workplace Relations Ministers, and current spokespeople have co-signed an open letter calling on all Members of Parliament to vote against the Employment Relations Amendment Bill, currently before the House.
“These changes threaten every single worker in Aotearoa. This is the most anti-worker Bill we’ve seen in decades,” said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Sandra Grey.
“Working people have a basic right to seek remedies for unjustifiable and unlawful dismissal. This Bill effectively destroys that right, leaving workers completely exposed to abuses of power by their employers.
“The Bill also allows employers to misclassify employees as contractors, and to strip them of basic entitlements like holiday pay and sick leave. This has the potential to undermine worker rights completely in some industries and will lead to the destruction of rights in many others over time.
“This Bill was clearly opposed during the select committee process, with employment experts and working people signalling that it will dramatically worsen an imbalance of power that already benefits employers. The majority of the submissions on the Bill were against it.
“We are asking every Member of Parliament to listen to the public, experts, and those impacted most by these changes, and vote this Bill down at the next reading.
“This dangerous Bill must not proceed,” said Grey.