Employment legislation - why and how it will change

By VERNON SMALL

The Government has unveiled its watershed industrial relations law, gambling that strengthening workers' rights will boost cooperation and productivity and not set off widespread industrial disputes.

Key to the Employment Relations Bill, which will sweep away the regime of the 1991 Employment Contracts Act, is a requirement for good-faith bargaining.

The Minister of Labour, Margaret Wilson, said poor overall productivity figures showed existing law had not been good for most workers or the economy.

The bill acknowledged inequality in bargaining power, which led to bad agreements.

It was the "take it or leave it, pick them up and throw them away type of relationship" under the ECA that it aimed to change, she said.

She would not speculate on whether strikes would increase.

But National's spokesman on industrial relations, Max Bradford, said days lost to strikes plummeted under the ECA. The bill would see more disruption, discourage investment and cost jobs.

"They have ripped the engine out and taken the wheels off the jobs machine of Jim Anderton," he said, in reference to Mr Anderton's economic development plans.

It would also remove workers' rights to negotiate a collective agreement without joining a union.

He said between $50 million and $150 million would flow into union coffers as workers came under pressure to unionise.

National had not discussed repealing the new law if it won power, but it would want to return to "something close to the ECA."

The Associate Labour Minister, Alliance MP Laila Harre, said the proposed law was an improvement on Labour and Alliance policy.

"The repeal [of the ECA] is the first attack on the fundamentals of the new right agenda," she said.

Union membership would remain voluntary, but unions and members would gain a raft of rights.

Only unions could negotiate collective agreements. They would win access to work sites, and members would receive paid trade union education leave and the right to stopwork meetings.

Strikes could be used to press for an agreement covering more than one employer.

New staff would have 30 days to choose between joining a union or staying on an individual contract. Until they decided, they would be covered by the union agreement.

Employees not involved in strikes or lockouts could not be forced to do the work of affected workers. Replacement workers could not be hired in a dispute unless for health and safety reasons.

Employers would be forced to disclose relevant financial and planning information during talks. A mediation service would resolve disputes and reduce legal battles.

The Employment Tribunal would be scrapped and an Employment Relations Authority set up to investigate and settle issues when mediation failed.

Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said he expected the bill to increase union membership, but the CTU had no set target.

The bill, to be debated in Parliament tomorrow, will become law in July after two months of select committee hearings.