The National party may prefer not to have their policy examined in great detail, but in today’s Herald Nigel Haworth, professor of human resource development at Auckland University’s Business School, provides some interesting observations about their 90 no-rights plans. Nigel Haworth suggests that:
“National’s intention to introduce, if elected, a 90-day probationary employment period, possibly in the small business sector, should concern everyone who supports the building of a high-value, high-productivity economy…
What are the arguments for the 90-day probationary period? Do businesses, especially small businesses, suffer from unnecessary costs which would be eased by this proposal?
The answer seems to be no. International measures, such as the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” index, suggest that New Zealand is one of the easiest countries in the world in which to do business. The employment-related measure in the index ranks New Zealand fourth of 155 countries for flexibility in hiring and firing.
Overall, the World Bank says, all economies have different regulatory mixes and, looking at the different mixes, New Zealand’s is about as good as you get in international terms. There is not much evidence in support of the proposed 90-day measure here.”
So if we are already up with the world leaders in the flexiblity of hiring and firing why are National seeking to promote the policy? Perhaps they want to indicate to their supporters that despite their flip flops and absorbing of Labour policy, they so still have a plan that right wing proponents would be proud of?
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