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FYI
Employment Law
01 Dec 2011
The Future of Employment Relations – The Next Three Years
Employment relations emerged as an important political battleground this election in light of the giant gap between the two main parties, with National wanting to give greater flexibility to businesses and Labour wanting to strengthen collective bargaining for workers.
Prime Minister John Key is moving quickly to put together his government with potential support parties, after National walked away from Saturday night’s election victorious with 47.99 percent of the vote and 60 seats in Parliament. We explore below key aspects of National’s employment relations policy with a view to helping you assess the implications for your business.
Flexibility and choice in employment policy
National's employment relations policy unsurprisingly is based on a continuation of its present incremental changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000 (Act). National says it will bring more flexibility to the rules that govern the labour market, believing this is critical for building a stronger and more competitive economy and creating jobs. In this regard, National wants to give businesses the confidence to take on new staff, help resolve workplace disputes more quickly, and provide more choices for workers.
Collective bargaining and industrial relations
National aims to improve our collective bargaining and industrial relations framework by:
- Retaining the requirement to bargain in good faith, while removing the current requirement to conclude a collective agreement unless there are genuine reasons not to;
- Ending the 30-day rule where new workers have a grace period before deciding whether to sign a collective agreement so that they can negotiate their own terms, or choose to join the union, at the outset of their employment (which will not only make the choice the employee's, but also reduce administration and compliance costs for employers);
- Allowing employers to opt out of Multi-Employer Collective Agreements;
- Allowing for partial pay reductions for partial strikes where the only real means of response currently available is to suspend or lock out employees which can damage the employment relationship and the relationship with the union; and
- Seeking input from the Department of Labour and the employment law community on the best way to prevent constructive dismissal from being used inappropriately in employment disputes, while maintaining access to justice for those who bring legitimate cases.
Flexible work arrangements
National says it will improve flexible working arrangements. At the moment, formal requests can only be made by those with caring responsibilities and must go through a formal process. National will extend the right to request flexible working hours to all workers and will allow flexible working agreements without invoking the formal request process. It will also remove the existing tenure requirement (six months of continuous service) before an employee can make a formal request to their employer.
Youth employment
National's employment relations policy includes a starting-out wage for young, first-time workers at 80% of the adult minimum wage, with the hope that this will give them a "much-needed foot in the door". This wage will be available for 16 and 17-year olds for their first six months with an employer and for 18 and 19-year olds who have been on a benefit for more than six months. The training wage will also be adjusted, with the required credits reduced from 60 to 40 credits for 16 to 19-year olds undertaking recognised industry training.
Moving forward
National's employment relations policy does not contain any radical changes from the approach of the last three years. Rather, it is mainly a gradual reform of union related parts of the Act whilst maintaining the overall framework of the Act. This is likely to be welcomed by employers looking for stability and certainty in how they manage their staff.
If you would like us to keep you abreast of particular developments as they relate to your business please let us know.
Authors
Charlotte Bates
Senior Associate - Employment
DDI: +64 4 924 3578
Mobile: +64 21 817 041
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Carl Blake
Senior Associate - Dispute Resolution
DDI: +64 9 977 5163
Mobile: +64 21 477 228
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Katherine Burson
Senior Associate - Employment
DDI: +64 9 977 5112
Mobile: +64 21 498 624
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Lucy Jenkins
Senior Associate - Employment
DDI: +64 4 924 3401
Mobile: +64 21 221 4534
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In This Article:
In this FYI, we explore key aspects of National's employment relations policy with a view to helping you assess the implications for your business.
