Employment Relations (2005)

LABOUR’S VISION

Labour has restored balance to workplace relations with a series of legislative measures including the Employment Relations Act 2000, and the Holidays Act 2003.

Given the strong economic growth of recent years, and emerging skills shortages, the key challenge now is to focus on enhancing workplace productivity. Labour has already begun to support employers and employees to work together on this issue, under the new good faith employment framework. This work will continue and be enhanced under Labour.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Labour has:

Restored balance to workplace relations with major reforms including the Employment Relations Act and Employment Relations Amendment Act. This has included an emphasis on good faith in dealings between employers and employees, and the promotion of collective bargaining;
Increased the minimum wage every year for six years, to ensure that all workers receive a fair share of economic growth. The adult minimum wage is now 35 percent higher than when we first entered government in 1999- and the youth rate has risen eighty per cent;
Introduced 12 weeks of paid parental leave in 2002 and extended it to 13 weeks last year. It will increase to 14 weeks in December 2005;
Legislated for four weeks annual leave for all workers, effective from 1 April 2007, and clarified and improved other aspects of the Holidays Act;
Ensured that workers who are required to work on public holidays are fairly compensated for being unable to spend the day with friends and family. Workers now receive time and a half and a day in lieu for working public holidays;
Provided a more effective mediation service to employers and employees to help resolve employment relationship problems before they escalate. Under Labour the number of cases having to be resolved at the Employment Court has fallen from 327 in 1999/2000 to 166 in 2003/2004;
Increased the protection available to vulnerable workers when the ownership of a business or a contract changes;
Strengthened workplace health and safety legislation to provide for more effective injury and illness prevention;
Launched a national strategy to improve the health and safety of our workforce and contribute to the productivity of our workplaces;
Established the Pay and Employment Equity taskforce and began implementing a five-year plan to address the gender pay gap in parts of the public service, and the public health and education sectors.

EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS ACT

Labour will continue to fine-tune the Employment Relations Act as necessary to deal with changes occurring in the New Zealand workplace. Three of the areas that will be addressed are:

Amending the Act as a matter of urgency to ensure that the policy intent of the protections for vulnerable workers in relation to successor contracting, and contracting mechanisms that have the effect of avoiding the Act, are fully achieved by the legislation;
Ensuring there is greater protection for dependent contractors;
Strengthening employment rights of workers employed by temporary work agencies and labour hire companies by allowing them to be covered by the applicable collective agreement in force at the workplace in which they are temporarily employed.

Labour is also aware that changes in the nature of work in New Zealand have meant most workers will have many jobs during their working life.

Labour intends to investigate options for the protection and portability of workers entitlements to leave and superannuation as they move from one job to another.

MINIMUM CODE OF EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS

Progress has been made in improving the minimum code of employment rights. Labour has continued to increase the minimum wage substantially, has made important improvements to the Holidays Act, has extended the Paid Parental Leave scheme, and has legislated to protect the position of workers affected by contracting out, changes of contractors, and sale of business.

Labour will:

Continue to strengthen the minimum code of employment rights by:

Continuing to make annual adjustments to the minimum wage,
Continuing to pursue ratification of ILO Convention 138 on the Employment of Children to prevent the exploitation of children while not preventing employment opportunities for young people,
Providing for meal and refreshment breaks as appropriate during the working day,
Establishing a Ministerial Advisory Group to examine the adequacy of redundancy law and provision.

PAID PARENTAL LEAVE

Labour will:

Improve access to paid parental leave. Self-employed mothers will be eligible for paid parental leave from July 2006;
Increase the leave entitlement for eligible parents from 13 to 14 weeks from December 2005;
Continue to review, with consideration of extension, paid parental leave provisions.

STATE AGENCIES

Labour believes that state agencies have a responsibility to promote good employer practices not just in relation to their own employees but also to those organisations with which they contract.

Labour will:

Encourage central and local government organisations to implement good employer policies including the facilitation of Multi-Employer Collective Agreements where these are initiated by sector unions;
Adopt and implement a responsible contractor policy which includes the requirement for those contracting to state agencies to be good employers.

SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP AND WORKER PARTICIPATION

Labour has ensured that unions are recognised as social partners. Labour will support the active involvement of workers and unions in industry strategies, engagement on productivity and skill development, and broad social and economic development processes.

PRODUCTIVITY

Labour recognises that a platform for a high wage, high skill economy requires continuous improvements in productivity. Labour believes that there are several key drivers of workplace productivity. In partnership with employers and unions, Labour will continue to promote the development of best-practice in respect of these drivers including leadership and management capability, workplace culture, innovation and technology, networking, how work is organised, measuring what matters and investing in people and skills.

Labour will recognise the unique role of unions and the value of worker participation in a positive agenda on workplace productivity.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Labour will:

Establish a tripartite body with representatives from business, unions and government agencies to address the strategic issues between ACC and Occupational Safety and Health;
Continue to develop and fund health and safety representatives’ training;
Move towards the ratification of ILO Convention 155, which addresses steps to prevent accidents and injury to health;
Prioritise occupational safety and health issues within the Department of Labour;
Improve the monitoring and surveillance of occupational injury and disease;
Continue to implement the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy.

WORK LIFE BALANCE

Labour recognises the need for all workers to be able to balance work and other life responsibilities including family and caring responsibilities, community and personal needs and commitments.

Labour will:

Develop and implement a range of responses to assist workers in balancing these responsibilities so as to both improve workplace productivity and ensure equitable and decent work

EQUAL PAY AND PAY EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

Through actioning recommendations of the Pay and Employment Equity Taskforce Labour has recognised the need to close the pay gap between men and women in the public service, in public health and education.

This pay gap exists in other parts of the economy as well and has consequences for the standard of living of women and their families and also for women’s lifetime earnings. Labour will continue to develop policies to ensure that over time these differences are addressed.

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