Business NZ has claimed that the proposed Fair Play legislation breaches International Labour Law. And that the International Labour Organisation agrees with it.
But its claims appear to be on the wrong side of what we could politely describe as the truth.
From Daniel Smith at Stuff:
BusinessNZ is being accused of misinformation in its handling of an International Labour Organisation document that implied New Zealand had been found to be in breach of international labour law.
On Monday morning BusinessNZ said the Fair Pay Agreement Bill, currently under select committee consultation, had landed New Zealand on an international “naughty list” of the 40 “worst case breaches” of international labour treaties.
But the list, compiled by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), an agency of the United Nations, was actually a list of alleged breaches, which may or may not be heard by a committee later this year.
The reason New Zealand was on the list was because BusinessNZ had successfully petitioned the ILO to consider whether the proposed Fair Pay Agreement bill was in breach of international law.
The BusinessNZ list, which put New Zealand alongside Afghanistan, Nigeria, and China, had the title “‘Worst cases’ breaches of international labour treaties”.
But the original ILO title for the list was “Preliminary list of cases as submitted by the social partners Committee on the Application of Standards”.
BusinessNZ, employment relations policy manager Paul Mackay, admitted BusinessNZ changed the name of the list.
But he said it was not a mischaracterisation to say New Zealand was in breach of international labour law, when the ILO had made no such decision.
This followed on from this morning’s Herald article where it was reported that the ILO favoured collective bargaining but Business NZ clearly thought that it was referring to voluntary bargaining.
Where do we start? This is Cameron Slater quality mischaracterisation of reality from an organisation that is meant to represent New Zealand businesses.
How about these claims?
If you disingenuously continuously stretch the meaning of plain english words to breaking point you get close to what Business NZ has claimed. But even then anyone with a basic level of English comprehension would reply with a “what the” to any of these claims. It is the same as someone filing a case in court and then immediately claiming that they had won.
There should be a repercussion for this sort of behaviour. If an organisation contaminates public discourse with this sort of crap their right to have their views amplified by main stream media should be revoked.
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