OPINION:
This week, the fight for better working conditions continued, with the Fair Pay Agreements Bill being heard by the select committee. This step forward gave rise to another round of predictably ill-informed complaints about the bill. So to help get the record straight, can we go through what Fair Pay Agreements are and what they will do?
Fair Pay Agreements are simply a mechanism through which minimum terms and conditions can be set across an industry or occupation. FPAs don't remove flexibility for workers. Employees will continue to negotiate their employment agreement with their employer. FPAs will create a floor for issues, including pay, meaning no one gets left behind. This process helps to stop working people from being exploited. Flexibility for too many workers in New Zealand means flexibility for the company, not flexibility for them or their family.
As a worker, FPAs will not limit your pay, or force you to be paid the same as your colleagues. Again, all they do is create an industry-wide agreed upon minimum rate. This helps tackle gender pay equality and helps deliver pay equity. They don't stop you getting a pay rise because you worked hard or put in extra hours. Nor would the trade union movement want that either. Not that you need to be a trade union member – nothing in the FPA Bill requires workers to join a union or to get a benefit from joining.
FPA's are negotiated directly by employers and employees – not by so-called Wellington bureaucrats. They then must be then ratified by both sides in a vote. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) looked at this in February this year and said that the proposed system was fine. Many overseas jurisdictions have sector-level bargaining and thriving small business sectors – which helps show how FPAs can benefit small businesses