CTU Media Release

7 June 2013

Business group urges government to reconsider employment law changes

The CTU welcomes the statement today from Building Service Contractors (BSC), a business group that represents New Zealand’s building services contractors, urging the Government to reconsider the proposed amendments to Part 6A of the Employment Relations Act to exclude small and medium businesses from certain obligations during the sale and transfer.

CTU Secretary Peter Conway says “we share similar concerns around the Government’s proposed changes to Part 6A as BSC. Removing small and medium businesses from Part 6A will encourage rogue companies to come in and underbid good employers to get contracts, such as cleaning contracts. It is the workers who will pay for these lower bids in their wages and conditions. This will take us further away from secure jobs, and a living wage.”

The CTU also welcomes the settlement of this multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) between the BSC and the Service and Food Workers Union.

“The CTU is also concerned that other major changes in the Bill before Parliament would allow employers to opt out of multi-employer bargaining. This will undermine MECAs rather than encourage them. MECAs are a way to lift wages and conditions for workers and create a stable and secure workforce which leads to more productive workplaces.”

“We are campaigning against these changes, and pushing for fair employment laws that encourage collective bargaining as the way to higher wages and productive and safe workplaces, not changes that undermine bargaining and make it even harder for workers to get ahead.”

ENDS

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