Parliament has passed the legislation repealing Fair Pay Agreements through its third reading, under urgency.
The previous Labour government passed the law to enable the agreements - which aimed to allow unions and employer associations to bargain for bottom-line terms and conditions, covering entire sectors - in March last year.
It took effect in December last year but no agreements have yet taken effect.
A bill repealing that has now passed its third reading in Parliament - with support from National, ACT and New Zealand First.
The incoming government campaigned on abolishing the law, committing to do so before Christmas in the coalition agreements.
Businesses had long opposed the legislation, saying it would impose extra conditions on them, increasing costs.
The move was fiercely criticised by the left bloc, which argued it takes workers deemed 'essential' in the pandemic backwards.
The House is still in urgency as the government moves on to repealing the clean car discount.
3 comments
Hmmm
Posted on 14-12-2023 10:43 | By Let's get real
Having benefited from this nonsensical policy myself, I still struggle to understand how benefiting government and council employees can possibly benefit the country... All it does is raise expectations for other employment groups and starts a spiral of increased wage claims. Has raising the wages for any of the groups; nurses, teachers, early childhood or bus drivers, increased the numbers of staff..? NO!!
In fact we are paying imported overseas workers a higher rate than local employees in the unused bus environment and we are still losing nurses and teachers overseas.
I'm still at a loss to understand how you can compare one group of workers with another in a completely different industry. Is an early childhood worker (a comparatively new occupation of modern living) really able to be compared with a secondary school teacher or a nurse...? For left-wing governments looking for votes, that's a YES
@Let's get real
Posted on 14-12-2023 12:51 | By morepork
Thanks for an interesting insight. I agree with you about comparing jobs and requirements; we wouldn't expect a brain surgeon to get the same base rate as a garbage collector (no offense intended to either occupation). I guess the worry is if unscrupulous employers try to exploit their staff. I believe those days are long gone and staff nowadays expect (and generally get) a fair deal. A bad employer won't be in business for too long.
Compulsory Unionism
Posted on 14-12-2023 16:00 | By FRANKS
The legislation was to payback the unions for their support of Labour and was compulsory unionism by stealth. It needed to go.
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