Workers’ rights reduced from today

Nurses say that changes to employment law that come into effect today will make it much harder for workers to get a fair deal.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation industrial services manager, Cee Payne says, “These changes are bad medicine. The law changes tilt the balance at work in favour of employers, and that’s not fair or right.”

“The new laws will enable employers to change working conditions and drive wages down.”

“Nurses know that collective bargaining and equal and collaborative relationships between groups of workers and their employers is the best way to achieve healthy workplaces and healthy employees. It is very disappointing that from today, this will be much harder to attain under the new legislation.”

“Nurses and other workers deserve to be valued and treated fairly at work and have decent wages that recognise their contribution to our economy.”

“It’s not the first time labour relations in New Zealand have been damaged like this. In the 1990s the Employment Contracts Act had the effect of reducing workers share of income in New Zealand to some of the lowest levels in the OECD.”

“Nurses will be standing together to protect their right to collective bargaining and to maintain employee rights to a fair deal across the country.” Cee Payne says.

ENDS

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