Friday 28 October, 2011

Media Release

National’s Employment Policy a Leap Backwards for Workers

National’s employment policy is a leap backwards with plans to introduce youth rates through the back door, further strip away workers’ rights and give more bargaining power to employers, says the EPMU, the country’s largest private sector union.

In policy released today the National Party is, amongst other things, promising to extend its Starting-Out wage – set at 80% of the minimum wage – to under 20 year olds, reduce new employee coverage to collective agreements and review employee rights to mount constructive dismissal cases.

The EPMU is disturbed with what it is calling “creeping youth rates” contained in National’s policy, peeling back the progress that has been made over the last decade in ensuring young people are paid fairly and not exploited.

“The National Party dresses their policy up under the guise of building flexibility and creating jobs but this is code for eroding workers’ rights and giving much more bargaining power to employers,” says Ged O’Connell, EPMU assistant national secretary.

“The Employment Relations Act is about addressing the inherent inequality of bargaining power that exists between employers and employees. The National Party wants to further erode the ability of employees to get a fair deal when it comes to bargaining with their boss, “ says Mr O’Connell. “In reality, it becomes more and more a ‘take it or leave it’ situation for workers.”

The EPMU is also critical of the National Party’s policy approach to multi-employer bargaining. “Increasingly we are seeing that industry agreements can deliver the kind of initiatives that can make a real difference to building productivity, pay and performance. National’s fixation with enterprise and individual bargaining is not improving our economic performance and this latest policy does nothing to change this,” says Mr O’Connell.

ENDS

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