John Key's track record on raising wages - 7. Part 6A - stripped away

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Continued from: John Key’s track record on raising wages – 6. Youth Rates

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7. Part 6A – stripped away

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One of the most far-reaching aspects of National’s covert agenda to make the country’s workforce  “more flexible” (translation; more exploitable)  is their stated intention to remove Part 6A  of the Employment Relations Act (ERA),  which continues (or transfers under similar conditions and pay) the employment of  low-paid employees such as caretakers, cleaners, catering workers, hospital orderlies and laundry workers,  after a business is restructured or sold.

See: Part 6A – Continuity of employment if employees’ work affected by restructuring

Part 6A gives vulnerable, low-paid workers, the right to keep their jobs on the same terms of employment when  transferred to the new contractor.

See: Labour law changes announced

Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson has assured the public that this law-change will apply only to  small and medium-sized businesses with less than 20 employees.

Pardon me? Didn’t they say the same thing for the 90 Day Trial Period law? Oh yes, I believe they did,

“Trial employment periods for up to 90 days for workplaces with fewer than 20 employees will be available from April 2009.” – Kate Wilkinson,  11 December 2008

See: National policy – 90-day trial period to provide job opportunities

Once National’s so-called “reforms” were bedded in, they changed it, implementing the policy they they had wanted all along,

“The 90-day trial period is to be extended to enable all employers and new employees to have the chance to benefit from it.” – Kate Wilkinson,  18 July 2010

See: National Policy – 90-Day Trial Period extended to all employers

Sneaky, these Tory politicians. Ya cain’t take your eyes offa them, even fer a minute, Jethro!

This blogger has zero doubt that the same means of  removing Part 6A will first apply to small business with fewer than 20 staff – and then later (a year?) will be extended to all employers.

Once Part 6A is removed from the lawbooks, the lowest-paid workers in our communities will be vulnerable. A new employer will  be able to re-write their contracts at whim; reduce  their pay; change their conditions, or dismiss them altogether. There are many such small business and the impact on their workers could be severe.

Are we detecting a common them with National’s labour “reforms”?

Green Party industrial-relations spokeswoman, Denise Roche, was 100% on-the nose when she described these – and other “reforms” as,

“This decision is straight from the Bill Birch era of industrial relations.”

This is indeed a return to the Employment Contracts Act – by stealth. National is too gutless to face the country by honestly presenting a manifesto returning to the ECA.

Remind us,  Mr Prime Minister, how scrapping Part 6A  will raise wages, as per your promises?

Next chapter: 8. An End to Collective Agreements

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