Fenton Darien: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Fenton Darien: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1204. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 Well it seems like it is left for me to inject some sense back into the debate around clause 7. I have an amendment on this clause and I am really really happy to talk about the thing that the member Tau Henare keeps insisting on which is democracy. On the one hand he wants to impose National Party democracy on a bunch of workers who choose to withdraw their labour—that is right; they choose to withdraw their labour—but he does not want to balance up the scorecard. So the situation is that workers will be required to have a secret ballot by the member’s bill. That provision will be able to be enforced by employers in a court of law which is interference in democracy and democratic processes actually. But on the other hand it is not balanced. It is biased against one party in the collective employment agreement relationship. 
So my amendment to clause 7 is to add a new section which would require shareholders to hold a secret ballot before they imposed a lockout. What is a lockout? It is the opposite to a strike. It is where an employer can say to its workers its employees—like it has done in the situation of Talley’s and 1000 of its meatworkers—“We are not going to allow you to come to work. We are not going to pay you to come to work until you are starved into submission—until you agree to our demands.” So it is the opposite. There is a balancing part of the Employment Relations Act: there is the right to strike and there is the right to lock out. What this member wants to do is give privilege to one side—in other words the employers. So he is saying on the one hand that workers must have a secret ballot. As my colleague and others have already said most of them do and they do it through their processes—through their processes. As democratic unions it is up to them to decide how to do it. However if the member insists on doing this he should even up the balance. 
His Minister of Labour likes to talk about balance in the employment relationship—having balance between employers and employees. My amendment would provide that. It would provide that if Mr Talley and the Talley family decided they were going to lock out their 1000 workers they would have to have a secret ballot of their shareholders before that lockout could take place. What is wrong with that? I ask the member in the chair the Hon Tau Henare what is wrong with that? What is wrong with having a balance? If he keeps insisting it is about democracy why is democracy on one side but not on the other? Why is he not considering this very very reasonable amendment that I am proposing? 
The other thing I wanted to say about the port workers situation is that actually what we have seen tonight is yeah sure they are back in negotiations but do you know why? It is because a court has decided under the Employment Relations Act—which Labour brought in and this Government has continued to interfere with and which is based on good-faith bargaining and fair dealing— 
Andrew Little 
: Mutual relationships. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: —and mutual relationships of trust and mediation as the first port of call—that the port company has not met those provisions. So thank goodness for the former Labour Government and the Employment Relations Act and may the Minister of Labour and this Government not get their grubby hands further on the Employment Relations Act as they are planning to do. They are planning to weaken collective bargaining even further. They are planning to make it harder for workers. 
This provision by this member will make it harder for members to carry out a strike. I do not see what the problem is in balancing up the equation. As I have said we would rather not have this measure at all but if the member insists that there must be a secret ballot and if a law has to be there to require it and it can be enforced in a court of law shareholders should have the same rights—the same democratic rights—to vote on whether their company should lock out workers like the Talley’s workers. Up and down the country in all the small towns throughout New Zealand in the Moerewas in the Wairoas and in the towns where the whole town is dependent on the meatworkers those workers are standing outside. They do not have a choice about a secret ballot. They have been locked out. They are being starved into submission. Their employer is completely disregarding the provisions in the Employment Relations Act. It is really unfair and I appeal to the member in the chair to show that he is really serious about democracy and fairness as he keeps insisting he is by supporting this amendment.