KEY POINTS:
The first time I ever had a conversation with Business NZ CEO Phil O'Reilly was at the farewell function for outgoing Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson. I was somewhat surprised to see O'Reilly at a union event. He said he was personal friends with many trade union leaders and a great supporter of developing constructive ties with the union movement.
Under the last Labour government, legislation was brought in to support "good faith" behaviour between employers and employees.
The buzzwords and mantra over the past decade in the CTU and Business NZ was "productive workplace partnerships".
The conventional wisdom was that if workers and employers worked together as partners on things that they had in common, then that would lead to better profitability, and consequently better wages and conditions for employees.
But I am aware that while partnership models do increase profitability, they do not always result in higher wages or job security for the workers. Sometimes it's just a ruse for certain employers to maximise profits and for their workers to work harder.
So I've always been a cautious, rather than an enthusiastic, supporter of this approach. Therefore I was disappointed, though not surprised, that on behalf of Business NZ, O'Reilly put out recommendations to the incoming National Government last week on employment relations.
Now that a National Government is in, it seems the employer peak organisations have returned to type.
They propose that the Government adopt a hard-right position and destroy workers' unions as the first step to take away the gains that workers have achieved in recent years.
First they want industrial law to focus on "productive workplaces" rather than support "good faith" relationships between employers and their employees.
In short, they want changes to the law to enable employers to make as much money as they can, while allowing them to ignore their employees' rights or concerns.
The recommendations are a declaration of class war against working people. Their demand is to turn industrial relations of the past decade on its head.
They want the Government to immediately allow small businesses to have unfettered right to dismiss any new worker in the first three months of their employment. That means that at any one time, 100,000 New Zealanders would have no legal rights if they are dismissed, no matter the reason.
This is outrageous and would allow exploitation and intimidation for those workers, particularly at the low end of the market.
They say employers are reluctant to take on new employees if they can't terminate them if it doesn't work out. Nonsense. The current law has a 90-day trial period for workers.
But what is required is for any such worker to be treated in a fair and reasonable way should this occur. Business NZ wants that protection removed. You join the dots on how that right will be abused.
That's just the first step. Here are some of their juicer demands: remove the union's right to negotiate a collective agreement on behalf of its members; restrict a union's ability to educate members on their rights; restrict their workers' representatives from coming on to worksites; allow employers to refuse a worker's request to have their union fees deducted from their pay.
Despite all of this, if employees do join a union, the employers want the right to pass on all union terms and conditions negotiated to non-union workers.
If there's a strike or lockout of the union members by an employer they want the right to bring in scabs to break their employees' resolve.
If the workers still don't bend, it's proposed that the employer can just divide up the union wage agreement and pass it on to each worker separately. This action would effectively end a dispute on an employer's terms.
The power in any employment relationship is always with the employer and that's why every civilised country has laws to protect workers from exploitation. Business NZ is demanding the unbridled right to control their workers. We used to call this relationship slavery.
Don't think for one moment that this is just a spat between business and union bureaucrats with no real effect on workers. Once they have neutered workers' union rights and independent representation, they will go after the rest of workers' conditions.
Let's not forget that National and employer organisations supported the youth wage and opposed raising the minimum wage, the fourth week of annual leave, workers using their sick leave for when their kids were sick, and paid parental leave. I can't think of one progressive legislative change for workers they have backed.
I take Key at his word that his Government will be moderate. But if he gets sucked into an anti-worker agenda he will buy a fight that may result in National being a one-term wonder. It seems some of the old guard of the right can't help themselves. My advice to Key is: show them the door when they call.
