Government must rein Brash in – EPMU

The Government must call on Don Brash to resile from comments made in his speech at AUT or remove him as the Chair of the 2025 Taskforce on productivity says the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

The call comes after the former National Party leader made it clear that he believes attacking the rights of working New Zealanders is a key part of increasing productivity – an approach that saw workers’ pay and conditions collapse when it was last implemented in the 1990s.

Specifically, Brash argued that reasons for New Zealand’s lagging productivity include “increased rigidities in the labour market as a consequence of the repeal of the Employment Contracts Act” and previous Governments’ refusal to remove employees’ rights to appeal against unfair dismissal.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says it is clear from his speech released yesterday that Brash has predetermined the outcome of the productivity investigation and it will be disastrous for Kiwi workers.

“The policies that Brash is advocating are exactly the policies that saw a massive increase in the wage gap with Australia in the late eighties and nineties and there’s absolutely no evidence to suggest the results would be any different this time.

“There’s no doubt that there needs to be an investigation into productivity but it needs to be done as a non-partisan exercise. Brash’s speech clearly shows he is unable to approach the issue with anything other than a hard-right perspective.

“If the Government expects any real result from this group other than tired and elitist dogma then they need to remove Brash or pull him into line. Any other response is an implicit collusion with his attacks on the rights of working Kiwis.”

The EPMU has a longstanding interest in productivity growth, and last year set up the Centre for High Performance Work in conjunction with the Dairy Workers Union to get workers and their employers working together to improve workplace productivity.

For more information about the Centre visit www.chpw.org.nz.

ENDS

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