Young Labour Welcomes Youth-Friendly Employment Law.

Young Labour President Michael Wallmannsberger has welcomed the passage yesterday of the Employment Relations Bill, calling it a huge step forward for the working rights of young New Zealanders.

"The Employment Relations Act will give real meaning to the right to collective bargaining. Finally, the labour rights of New Zealand workers will be brought into line with our international obligations. Young workers, who have never experienced an environment where their rights were taken seriously, will come to welcome this change from a failed past.

"Labour and the Alliance have delivered exactly what we promised in employment law. The ERA at last understands that there’s more to employment than a simple contract. Making sure people deal with each other in good faith is a huge improvement over what we have now.

"The ERA is a giant leap forwards for the people we represent. Young people going into their first job now know they will be employed on conditions at least as good as any relevant collective contract.

"The only sad thing about the passage of the ERA has been the utterly farcical reaction of the Opposition to the entire process. Never has it been more evident just how narrow a section of New Zealand society the Opposition represents. Despite the well-documented failures of the ECA to achieve anything positive in New Zealand workplaces, they continue to support it. National and ACT are clearly in the pockets of their paymasters, and don’t know when they’ve lost a fair fight.

"The next thing to look forward to is an improvement to the minimum code, which together with the ERA will deliver young people a better working environment than they’ve ever had before.

"First we started to fix the student loans crisis, and now we’re moving on to improve another area. The ERA is yet another step on the road to making New Zealand a place where young people will want to live again,” Michael Wallmannsberger concluded.

ENDS

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