Law firm Chapman Tripp has taken it upon itself to summarise the business community’s expectations for National’s second term. From a summary in the NBR:
80% ‘starting out’ wage on the way
Further labour market deregulation will be among the ‘new’ government’s policy priorities, according to a Chapman Tripp report released this afternoon. Based on its manifesto, and National’s first-term track record, the law shop expects the new government to:
- remove the requirement to conclude collective contract negotiations
- remove the requirement that non-union members are employed under a collective agreement for the first 30 days
- allow employers to opt out of negotiations for a multi-employer collective employment contract
- allow employers to respond to partial strikes or other low-level industrial action with partial pay cuts
- extend flexible working arrangements (removing the 6-month rule before an employee can request a flexible working arrangement, removing the limits on the number of requests an employee can make in a 12-month period, extending the right to make a request to all employees, removing the requirement to invoke a formal process), and
- introduce a “Starting-Out Wage” set at 80% of the minimum wage for youth workers.
National has also said that it will review constructive dismissal so that it is less available as “an allegation of last resort,” Chapman Tripp notes.
(See the original for further details of ACC plans.) Plenty of workers organised and campaigned and worked hard for parties of the Left last weekend (thank you one and all). But plenty didn’t even bother to vote. At what point will non voters connect the continuing erosion of their rights with politics, and realise that they have the power change the government? How bad will it have to get?
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