Matt McCarten: Workers lose their right to fair process in class war

John Key shows his true colours. Photo / Doug Sherring

It took a while, but John Key and his party have come clean about their politics and whose interests they serve in our capitalist system.

Key's sunny personality and his vocal commitment to work in the interests of "all New Zealanders" has earned almost record popularity for him and his party. So it is disappointing he has used this support to now allow unscrupulous employers to gratuitously exploit working New Zealanders.

The National leader is announcing to his party conference today he will change the law so any employer gets the unfettered ability to instantly sack any worker without warning in their first 90 days of employment, without that worker having any legal recourse.

Key and the business fraternity argue this allows employers to take on suspect workers without risk of penalties if it doesn't work out.

Their public spin is this is primarily to accommodate new employees who are long term unemployed or recently out of prison, therefore it's good news for workers. That is a blatant lie.

Key's proposal would allow every single waged and salaried worker starting with any employer in this country to be sacked without any reason given.

More than 400,000 workers start new jobs every year and they will lose their rights to any fair process should their new employer have concerns.

This is ideological and isn't good business practice.

When an employer employs someone it's a joint responsibility on both people.

A new employee agrees to be a "good servant", but equally the boss agrees to be a "good master". That means they have to provide adequate support and training and warn them if there is a possibility of them being sacked.

The present law allows an employer to sack a worker if it doesn't work out. But before they do they have a responsibility to warn them and provide adequate support and training. What's wrong with that? Any competent and decent business does that already.

The whiney bosses who claim they should have the right to sack any employee without any consequences are people who shouldn't be employing other human beings in the first place.

This proposed employment relationship isn't a partnership between capital and labour but a feudal system of a lord ruling over compliant serfs.

Key claims it takes away the risks for employers. What about the risk for employees, even now? Current employees take the risk every day with their jobs. They hope their management knows what it's doing and their owners don't make bad business decisions that affect their pay and job security. Key is allowing bad employers to get away with shonky practices and let their employees take the rap without any comeback if things go wrong.

Key's other proposal to let employees trade their holidays for cash is just a cynical manoeuvre to screw workers out of paid holidays to which they are entitled.

The only reason workers would trade their holidays for cash is because their wages are too low and they need the money to pay bills.

I know exactly what bad bosses will do. They will tell vulnerable workers they can't pay them a pay rise but they will "buy" their holidays off them.

Each week's holiday the worker is forced to sell they will get a 2 per cent pay rise. Effectively the boss gets it for nothing as they should pay a rise to keep up with inflation anyway.

I know enough about these sorts of people in the real world that Key naively pretends doesn't exist.

To ensure these rogues can get away with these sorts of abuses, Key is also proposing to change the law to effectively prevent workers joining together in a union and have their union representative support them at their workplace.

Kate Wilkinson, the Minister of Labour, states she wants to return more "control" to the employer. That's the real agenda. It's called class war and Key's mask has been lifted. Now we know why he's nicknamed the smiling assassin.