27 July 2006

Throw out the Mapp Bill CTU tells Select Committee

"If the Mapp Bill is passed the continued employment of up to 300,000 working New Zealanders will be dependant upon the unchallengeable decision, the prejudices, and the whims of their employer" CTU president Ross Wilson told the Select Committee on the Mapp Bill today.

Parliamentary Select Committee hearings began this morning on National's 90 Day Employment Amendment Bill.

"The Employment Relations Act already provides for genuine probationary employment," he said. "Mr Mapp has failed to produce any evidence that the existing provisions in the Act are unworkable."

"Genuine probationary employment raises a reasonable expectation of continuing employment," he said. "This Bill strips all working New Zealanders of all rights for the first 90 days of their new job."

"The primary reason given for this Bill is that existing law makes it too difficult to dismiss an employee ."

"Yet we know that 0.1% of employees take an employment problem to the Employment Relations Authority and the numbers taking up personal grievances in the first 90 days is completely insignificant."

"The number of cases relating to the existing s67 probationary period provision in the Employment Relations Act are too few to register" Ross Wilson. ""Employers aren't even using the provision they are complaining about."

"This is not a Bill that can be fixed up - and the union movement is arguing for the select committee to throw it out."

ENDS

© Scoop Media