8 March 2016

Strengthening the rights of workers

The Māori Party is pleased to have helped improve employment conditions for workers in Aotearoa who are on zero hour agreements.

The Māori Party, along with United Future and Labour, has negotiated with the Government to strengthen the rights of workers in the Employment Standards Bill.

“If United Future and the Māori Party hadn’t held out on giving their full support to the Employment Standards Bill, we wouldn’t have been able to collectively negotiate better conditions for workers on zero hour contracts”, says Māori Party Co-leader Marama Fox.

Mrs Fox says the party discussed a range of issues with the Workplace Relations and Safety Minister, including guaranteed hours for workers on zero-hour contracts and adequate compensation in the event that scheduled work shifts were cancelled at short notice.

“We’re satisfied with the changes the Minister has made in response to our concerns. It will give workers and their whānau more certainty around their hours of work and income”, she says.

Māori Party Co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell says, “There is still plenty of room to improve employment law in Aotearoa but we’re happy to have had an invaluable role in strengthening this piece of legislation.”

The Māori Party has strongly supported the extension of paid parental leave from 16 to 18 weeks. It has also worked to ensure that whāngai parents are recognised, for the first time, as eligible for paid parental leave as well as ensuring parents who work part-time (more than 10 hours a week) are also entitled to paid parental leave.

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