Maori Party does the right thing

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, December 11th, 2008 - 4 comments
Categories: maori party, workers' rights - Tags: ,

Well, it’s a relief to see that while the Maori Party might have voted to take money out of the pockets of the poor to pay for tax cuts for the rich, they’ve at least held the line on protecting our work rights by rejecting National’s fire at will bill.

Pita Sharples hits the nail on the head:

‘Our policy for workers is to support, uphold and extend their rights… We have no evidence offered with this Bill, that probationary periods provide gains for new, inexperienced or marginalised employees as claimed.

‘We think this Bill discourages the very thing that is needed for employers to have clear probationary contracts with new employees, and to have good employment, induction and training processes, to minimise the risk of poor performance.”

And Hone points out just how illusory National’s so-called ‘safeguards’ really are.

‘Lower pay rates for Maori workers across all industries indicate the extent of institutional racism that this Bill may unintentionally exacerbate, especially if the forecast recession increases unemployment.

‘Although employees can raise issue of discrimination/harassment with ERA and Employment Court, they cannot be reinstated, as reinstatement is a remedy for unjustifiable dismissal cases which are disallowed under the Bill.

‘Access to mediation is essentially meaningless, because if it cannot be taken further, there is no incentive for the employer to come to a settlement or resolution.’

Of course, even if National insists on ramming it through the bill will still have the numbers to pass with the support of ACT and United Future. But the bill’s legitimacy, already tarnished as it is, will be further undermined without the Maori Party’s support.

4 comments on “Maori Party does the right thing ”

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  1. illuminatedtiger 1
    11 December 2008 at 10:34 am

    What I want to know is whether Labour will scrap this piece of shit legislation in 2011 as Rudd did to Work Choices.

  2. Tane 2
    11 December 2008 at 10:45 am

    If Labour are smart they won’t just repeal it in 2011, they’ll use it to beat the Nats over the head for the next three years.

  3. the sprout 3
    11 December 2008 at 10:45 am

    hmm… not so much the Right Thing as the Only Thing when your coalition partners are making you look like monkeys.

  4. jafapete 4
    11 December 2008 at 1:50 pm

    I’m with sprout on this one. All so predictable.

    Please note Hone, there’s no “if” about unemployment increasing. It is and it will get much worse before it gets better. Further, as I note on my blog, it was 9.3% for Maori compared to 3.2% for Pakeha in the September quarter. I’m pretty sure that’s an increasing gap in proportional terms. So for Maori it’s probably already more than one in ten and rising at a faster rate than Pakeha.