*CANCELLED* Public Meeting – Fair Pay Agreements
DUE TO NATIONWIDE LEVEL RESTRICTIONS THIS MEETING HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Come along to the public meeting Louise Upston is hosting with Hon Scott Simpson talking about Labour’s Fair Pay Agreements.
It’s hard to recall a more challenging time for our country’s business owners. The last twelve months have been especially difficult for employers dealing with lockdowns and the closure of our border to tourists while having to find the money for overheads not covered by wage subsidies.
Recently, employers have had to cope with minimum wage increases – even if they were not employing staff on the lowest rate, the flow on effect impacts their wage outgoings substantially. Now the Government is proposing Fair Pay Agreements: the reintroduction of 1970s style interference in the workplace, helpful for the unions, but certainly not for the people who actually create jobs.
A compulsory fair pay agreement can include even non-union members if 10% (or 1,000 members) of that industry sector force it. A small café can be impacted by a fair pay agreement if an award rate is forced onto baristas, for example. Even if those staff are not interested in negotiating, they’ll lose the right of consent to such an agreement and also the right to privacy as this law will require employers to give staff contact details to unions.
This “Fair Pay” regime is a threat to job security if employers cannot find the money to pay higher government-imposed wages. It may be necessary to lay staff off so employers can afford to pay a compulsory increase to others. With over 75,000 more New Zealanders on the unemployment benefit than when Labour took office, wouldn’t you would think the Government should help employers take on new staff, not lay them off?
