Clark blatantly misleads Tourism Conference
"Helen Clark's claim (at the Tourism Industry Association
conference in
Wellington today) that the tourism
industry's concerns have 'Led to
significant changes
being made' to the Employment Relations Bill are
an
absolute outrage," National's Tourism Spokesman David
Carter said today.
"The submission which the TIA made on
the Bill called for significant
changes, and the need for
those changes was backed up by a recent survey
which
showed most operators expect the number of jobs in tourism
to decline
because of the ERB," Mr Carter said.
"The
Association wanted a clear definition of 'good faith
bargaining', the
removal of clauses which could create
compulsory unionism and tight controls
on provisions
which would require commercially sensitive information to
be
released. TIANZ also wanted the removal of clauses
which create the
potential for industry-wide
strikes.
"However it is clear that the Government has not
listened to the tourism
sector's concerns, as Ms Clark
would have us believe. They have made meagre
changes
which offer the sector nothing except compulsory unionism
and
increased compliance costs.
"Recent statements by
the Service and Food Workers Union, who represent
the
tourism sector, suggest tourism operators have valid
reasons to be
concerned.
"The SFWU have already
released a newsletter which says its members 'must
work
hard to ensure that our sites do not become full of free
loaders
enjoying the same terms and conditions as union
members... this means we get
vocal, we get organised, we
get political and we get active'.
"These comments should serve as a dire warning to the Tourism sector.
"Tourism
is booming and instead of enhancing the sector's direction
the
Government is more concerned with archaic legislation
which will only hinder
its performance," said David
Carter.
Ends