Labour’s work and wages policy takes employment relations back decades.
Over at Keeping Stock, Inventory 2 puts a very strong case against raising the minimum wage to $15.
None of our employees is on the minimum wage but, as I2 says, increasing it will put pressure on other wages.
It’s a policy which will discourage the employment of the young, unskilled and inexperienced, as will ending the 90 day trial period for new employees.
We employed a manager earlier in the year. She came well recommended but we had some reservations about how well she’d cope with the job. She agreed to a 90-day-trial period, proved herself and we confirmed the position as permanent.
Had we not been able to give her a trial we wouldn’t have employed her.
The policy also includes Industry Standard Agreements which will take us back 50 years.
We don’t need backward looking policies like the one today on industrial relations from the Labour Party, says Kim Campbell, chief executive of the Employers’ and Manufacturers’ Association.
“The Industry Standard Agreements policy is a one size fits all approach that would take us back to 1960′s,” Mr Campbell said.
“People sitting in Wellington can’t decide what’s good for businesses and their employees in Invercargill and Kaitaia. It simply doesn’t work.
“Business wants to work to build an exciting future for all New Zealanders and we all want to get on with it.
“We want to focus on increasing productivity and attracting more investment to lift our business performance.
“But no matter how its dressed up this policy takes us back to system of national awards and it would undermine all the progress made towards flexible workplaces. . .
Kiwiblog has a graph of stoppages and work days lost to strikes which illustrates the danger of returnign to the bad old days.
The policy is pay-back for the financial support unions give the party.
It might be good for unions but it will increase costs without increasing productivity which will be bad for employees and employers.
Labour sees the need to be a party to every employment contract in other words. Typical “we know best” attitude of the left.
The thing I find incredible about the Union/Labour fuss about the 90 day period, is that when both my wife and I started work (at different employers) in the early 1980′s we were on 6 month trial periods, and that was pretty standard back then.
90 days – toughen up cupcakes.
If you are a good employee you have nothing to worry about with trial periods – they are just a chance to prove yourself.
If they are a bad employer who is taking advantage, you a better off not working there in the first place.
Quite so Ross; and where are all the stories of scumbag employers abusing the “Fire at Will Bill”? Surely, if that was the case, Labour and its union mates would be shouting from the rooftops.
Perhaps the 90-day provision is working exactly as intended, and is actually giving employers an incentive to take on new staff.
If my memory serves me correctly, the Labour Party/Unions were going to name and shame bad employers.. What happened with that one?
Jabba, as I2 says, if they’d found them they’d have been shouting about it. That they haven’t indicates they haven’t found them.
I was driving for 2 hours last night and listened to Newstalk ZB talkback for a bit, where they were canvassing this very subject.
One fella called in who had been employed by a cold calling call centre, who had his employment terminated at 90 days for no reason according to him.
Only one side of the story, but I am sure there are some bad employers out there, who are abusing the system. However they will be far and few between, and these days, particularly with social media, they are highly unlikely to survive for long as a business if they systematically treat people poorly.
Look at what TripAdvisor and similar sites are doing to the hospitality industry – if you look you simply will never have to stay at a place that treats you poorly i.e. bad hosts will go out of business.
I think the same thing will happen with employment – word will get out.
In the interim we have some political parties stuck in a time warp of the 1950′s industrial disputes. Sad and mis-guided
Modern information and social media mean that the people can do their research both ways, and also look after themselves pretty effectively. Don’t really need unions or the government intervention.
So mid last century really.