KEY POINTS:
The government should undertake research and provide evidence to support changes to the Employment Relations Act (ERA), an employers' organisation says.
Labour Minister Trevor Mallard and Cabinet colleague Maryan Street yesterday announced proposals to amend the act.
As well as minimum meal and refreshment breaks the amendments would give women the right to breastfeed their babies at work and employers would need to provide facilities and breaks for breastfeeding where reasonable and practical.
Shift workers would also be permitted to transfer their public holidays to another day.
Business NZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly said employers were in favour of adequate meal and rest breaks and provision for breastfeeding mothers but he had not seen any evidence that required a new law.
"This is a very uncontroversial matter - in thousands of workplaces across the country employers and employees make sensible agreements in their mutual interests without having written rules," he said.
Inflexible rules advantage unions, not employees or workplaces, he said.
"We are keen on evidence-based law, because without evidence of actual problems there is the danger of getting prescriptive rules that make things worse."
The Government should conduct research to see if a problem existed, he said.
Mr O'Reilly welcomed the move to allow shift workers to transfer public holidays but said the laws were over-prescriptive.
"These parts of the ERA and the Holidays Act harm the profitability of firms while not doing anything particularly useful for workers."
The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) yesterday welcomed the changes to the Act.
The changes to legislation would be introduced this year.
- NZPA
