Nats not straight on wages - EPMU

The National Party has again tried to avoid addressing the wage issue at an industrial relations conference this morning says the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

The call follows an address to the 2008 Industrial Relations conference by National’s employment spokesperson Kate Wilkinson that had promised “National’s views on the industrial relations landscape” including detail on specific sections of employment policy, but which in reality delivered a series of equivocal platitudes.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says National needs to declare some real detail on their plans for wages.

“National has talked for some time about the thirty percent wage gap we have with Australia but when offered the chance to provide real answers today they have instead managed to say less on the issue than we’ve ever heard from them before.

“John Key is on the record as saying he ‘would love to see wages drop’ and other National MPs have openly stated they want to weaken collective bargaining and make it easier for workers in a new job to get sacked, and we’ve heard nothing to suggest they have changed their spots.

“Wage policies affect millions of working New Zealanders and their families and National should recognise this and be straight about what their policies are because at the moment it looks like they’ve got something to hide.”

The EPMU is New Zealand’s largest private sector union, representing 50,000 workers across eleven industries.

In 2006 the EPMU led the campaign to defeat National’s bill to take all rights from workers during their first 90 days in a new job. This is still official National Party policy.

ENDS

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