BusinessNZ will help employers negotiate Fair Pay Agreements

Michael Wood with Trade Union representatives at Parliament to support the Fair Pay Agreements bill. Photo / Michael Neilson

BusinessNZ says it will help its members negotiate Fair Pay Agreements, even though it rejected the Government’s proposal for it to be employers’ default representative of last resort.

The lobby group's employment relations policy manager Paul Mackay said it would consider how it would help employers involved in Fair Pay Agreements on a "case-by-case basis".

BusinessNZ last year declined the Government's offer for it to be paid $250,000 a year for three years to act on behalf of employers that need representation and play a supporting role in the Fair Pay Agreements system more generally.

BusinessNZ, whose network members employ up to 70 per cent of the country's workforce, argued it didn't want anything to do with the scheme, partly because of its compulsory nature.

The Fair Pay Agreements Bill, which takes effect on December 1, outlines a process that forces employers to negotiate minimum pay and working conditions if a certain number (1000) or portion (10 per cent) of workers in an industry want to go to the negotiating table, or if a "public interest" test is met.

Mackay didn't regret BusinessNZ's decision not to take up the "immaterial" amount of funding the Government put on the table for it to be a default representative.

Pointing to the cost of advertising campaigns linked to Fair Pay Agreements as an example, he said the money would've lasted "all of five minutes".

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood said the Council of Trade Unions will take the cash and be a default coordinator on employees' side of the table.

He expected most employers implicated by Fair Pay Agreements would have sector-based employer groups to represent them.

EMA chief executive Brett O`Riley: "We feel we need to step back into this mess." Photo / supplied

Nonetheless, BusinessNZ's affiliate, the Employers and Manufacturers' Association (EMA), reiterated it would make the "significant" amount of resource it has available to employers.

"We have experienced legal and consulting teams who will provide their considerable expertise," EMA chief executive Brett O'Riley said.

"With the Employment Relations Authority having the power to set the terms of a Fair Pay Agreement if no employer is available, we feel we need to step back into this mess.

"The Employment Relations Authority consistently finds in favour of employees in more than 70 per cent of hearings, so employers will have little faith in the authority bargaining also from their corner."

Wood's argument has been that employers who offer workers decent conditions will benefit from Fair Pay Agreements, which will prevent these employers from being undercut by competitors who pay their staff less.

He has said that over the past 30 years, workers have suffered from a "race to the bottom", and productivity has waned.

Cleaners, security guards, retail workers and bus drivers are among those expected to be among the first to initiate negotiations with their employers.