Industrial Relations

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• Support the retention of legislative provisions giving contracted workers (those whose jobs are sub-contracted, contracted out or the subject of succession contracting), the right to transfer to the new employer on existing terms and conditions for at least 6 months.
• Establish a minimum statutory entitlement to redundancy compensation (4 weeks for first year plus two weeks for each year thereafter) where no fault redundancy termination occurs, e.g. bankruptcy of the company
• Provide parents who are employees, who have worked for the same employer for more than six months, and who have dependent children or severely impaired dependents, the statutory right to request part-time and flexible hours and flexible working arrangements.
• Investigate the economic and social effects of a 35-hour working week in New Zealand.
• Strengthening the ability of unions to prevent passing on of terms and conditions reached through collective bargaining to those who are not union members in order to prevent freeloading and more adequately support collective bargaining. A bargaining fee is appropriate but should be linked to 90 % of the applicable Union fee, rather than a one off fee. (more here)

• Labour will repeal the National Government’s unfair laws where workers can be fired without cause in their first 90 days of employment.
• We will look at the rules relating to probationary periods, and if they are not as explicit as employers and workers would like, we will make them explicit.
• We will reinstate collective bargaining rights for workers and will not allow for arbitrary termination of bargaining. Our preference is for pay and conditions to be negotiated so they reflect the reasonable expectations of employers and workers in the business or in an industry. (more here)

• Immediately increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 1 April 2012, and peg it to two thirds of the average wage each year from 1 April 2013.
• Remove workers’ pay from competition between companies in the same industry through industry-wide pay scales and conditions of employment in industries where unions are present.
• Immediately abolish the 90 day trial period for new employees.
• Ensure that workers who receive the benefit of a collective agreement without belonging to the union which negotiated the agreement, are required to pay at least the equivalent of the union fee back to the union in recompense for the advantage gained.
• Support pay and employment equity; the extension of paid parental leave to at least one year; and oppose any further liberalisation of shop trading hours. (more here)

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• Raise the minimum wage to $16 per hour.
• Change laws that allow individuals to be employed on a permanent ‘casual’ basis.
• Train New Zealanders in areas of skill shortages, instead of actively recruiting offshore.
• Ensure that hiring New Zealanders is a priority.
• Abolish the ‘starting out wage’ for young people. (more here)

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