Job-law proposals split bosses and unions

By BRIAN FALLOW

Bad law marginally improved: that is how Business New Zealand sees proposed changes to the Employment Relations Act.

But the Council of Trade Unions says the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill, which was reported back to the industrial relations select committee yesterday, is "on balance, okay".

CTU president Ross Wilson said mechanisms for multi-employer bargaining had been taken out, which was "quite a big setback" for the council.

But the CTU never saw the bill as any more than a modest fine-tuning of a moderate law.

One major focus of the bill was the passing-on of terms and conditions agreed in collective bargaining to other employees. Wilson said the CTU had never thought a blanket ban was achievable. The bill makes it a breach of good faith if the employer does that with the intention and effect of undermining the collective agreement.

But the select committee has amended the bill to make it clear it is not a breach of good faith to arrive at substantially the same terms and conditions, provided employers and employees have bargained in good faith for those provisions.

"We would have liked something stronger. But at least it gives us something to use against employers, often quite large employers, who do this as a matter of strategy," Wilson said.

He welcomed Labour Minister Paul Swain's foreshadowing of a supplementary order paper to allow for "bargaining fee arrangement" to be negotiated where it is agreed that the terms and conditions of a collective agreement are to be passed on to non-union members on individual agreements.

Business NZ chief executive Simon Carlaw said the provisions on passing on went to the heart of the bill, which was "to take away choice and freedom in the workplace for employers and employees".

He said the effect would be that no employer would be able to pay non-union people any differently from union members.

"That is just daft, especially in a situation where skills are tight and likely to stay tight for some time."

Business NZ saw the bill as a change as major as that from the Employment Contracts Act to the Employment Relations Act.