Best Kept Human Rights Secret Is Workers' Rights

“The best kept human rights secret is that workers’ and union rights are human rights under international law,” said Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson today.

Ross Wilson said although New Zealand now had much more mainstream industrial relations law with the Employment relations Act, there were still international conventions we did not comply with.

“The upcoming amendment to the Health and Safety in Employment Act will allow New Zealand to comply with ILO Convention 155, which promotes employee participation as the key to safe and healthy workplaces,” he said.

“But New Zealand workers are still waiting for the internationally acknowledged right to have their medical costs met in full following a workplace accident.”

Ross Wilson said that New Zealand’s failure to ratify ILO convention 17, the Convention ensuring that medical costs would be met in full, was a basic human rights issue.

“This Government is making progress in achieving the ratification of ILO Convention 17, but unions will campaign hard until New Zealand workers do not have pay for any of the cost of work-related accident and illness,” he said.

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