Labour Day gains at risk of erosion
 
As New Zealand is set to celebrate historic gains for workers on Labour Day tomorrow, a major union is warning that there are proposals to take some rights away again.
 
FIRST Union General Secretary Robert Reid said that Labour Day was a chance to celebrate gains made by generations of workers for themselves and those following in their footsteps.
 
“But this week laws were introduced to cut young workers’ pay, and before Christmas the government is expected to introduce legislation that would weaken collective bargaining,” he said.
 
“Just as our forebears won us decent working conditions, today unions are making sure that current workers’ wages keep up with the cost of living and their working conditions improve.” 
 
“Central to that is collective bargaining – workers coming together to negotiate with their boss, not going it alone.”
 
“But with the government signalling their intention to cut even further into what employment provisions we have to support collective bargaining, their only intention can be to see wages stagnate or go down.”
 
The government’s proposals are expected to include the removal an obligation to complete negotiations, and removal of the provision of new workers to benefit from union-negotiated conditions for the first 30 days while they consider joining the union.
 
“One of the only mitigating factors against New Zealand’s widespread poverty wages is union collective bargaining.  This is demonstrated every year by Victoria University research showing the gap between collectively negotiated pay increases, against the national average.”
 
“Unions are part of the solution to low pay and achieving a living wage, and any government genuinely committed to closing the wage gap with Australia would recognise this,” Robert Reid said.

ENDS

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