Friday, 29 October 2010

News Release

Don’t extend unjust “Hobbit” law to bind all contractors

Extending “The Hobbit” law to all contractors would simply extend a gross injustice done to a few to the many, says New Zealand’s largest private sector union, the Engineering. Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU).

“Such “contractor” agreements have the effect of denying workers access to employment protections including minimum standards, personal grievances and holiday rights even though a worker may operate and be managed as if they are employed under a conventional employment agreement,” says EPMU national secretary Andrew Little.

“The law change denies workers in the film industry a right that has been around for more than a hundred years which is to have the real nature of an agreement to perform work determined by the courts,” he says.

“Prohibiting the courts from deciding on the true nature of a person's agreement is not a step that should ever be taken lightly as it denies one of the basic checks and balances against abuse of these arrangements by employers.”

“In commercial, trust and tax matters the courts have always had the ability to go behind the words and look at the true nature of an agreement or arrangement.”

“Today’s call by the Employers & Manufacturers Association (EMA) to extend the new law to all contractors shows that the government's hasty and ill-considered law change is having the predictable consequence of encouraging and promoting the extremists to demand stripping even more rights and protections off working people.”

The EPMU represents around 45,000 members across eleven industry sectors and takes an active interest in employment law.

ENDS

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