Moroney Sue: Employment Relations (Statutory Minimum Redundancy Entitlements) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Employment Relations (Statutory Minimum Redundancy Entitlements) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10005. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): I moveThat the Employment Relations (Statutory Minimum Redundancy Entitlements) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee to consider the bill. I want to dedicate the first reading of this bill to the late Parekura Horomia. I was not able to be present on the day that Parliament paid tribute to Parekura so promoting this bill will be my tribute to him. I know that he supported this measure because he was a kind and decent man who was fierce in his advocacy and support for working people and their families. He always stood up for the little guy.They say that when it comes to politics timing is everything. Sadly the timing for this bill which promotes redundancy protection for working people could not be more timely. I do say that with a heavy heart. It could not be more timely because the tsunami of redundancies continues to surge through this land whether it be the almost 200 jobs gone from Summit Wools Spinners in Ōāmaru in February to the mining jobs lost on the West Coast and in Huntly late last year through to the hundreds who lost their jobs throughout New Zealand when Mainzeal Property and Construction collapsed. The surge just keeps on going and momentum is building. We know that momentum is building because Telecom has warned it will be cutting hundreds of jobs later this year. Last week Fonterra announced it will cut 300 jobs and New Zealand Post has also signalled the cutting of postal delivery services. Hundreds more jobs willbe lost when that plan is unveiled. The members opposite seem to think that that is fine and they do not seem to have any problem with it but on this side of the House we do. Just like the tsunami delivered by mother Nature we know that after the big surge there are others to come. We know this because when large numbers of jobs get sucked out of communities like Ōāmaru Westport and Huntly less money is available to be spent there. When those wages go from those communities that has a huge downstream effect on small and medium sized businesses and then those businesses lose income and more jobs go there too. And so the cycle continues.These are not the job losses that you will see announced on TV or in the newspapers. These are the jobs that are lost under the radar—a job here three jobs there another eight jobs more down the road. They are the jobs you will see reflected in the quarterly household labour force survey which told us that the number of people employed decreased by 23000 in the December 2012 quarter alone. That represents 23000 jobs disappearing from our labour market. The statistics are depressing enough but convert those numbers into people—hard-working people whose jobs have vanished through no fault of their own people who have children and other dependent relatives relying on those wages people who once spent those wages at their local businesses—and you will know that 23000 is just the tip of the iceberg. The devastation caused by this tsunami of job loss is just as heart-wrenching and far-reaching as that caused by nature’s tsunamis.However in the aftermath of a natural disaster we all seem able to agree that the victims should be helped and compensated for their loss. This bill before the House today seeks that same safety net and security for the victims of this man-made disaster. Ordinary hard-working New Zealanders deserve the right to be warned about the approaching tsunami and they need some compensation to help them pick up the pieces and get on with their lives. Let us face it. Getting on with their lives is a tough proposition in New Zealand at present. If a job gets sucked from underneath you now you are a long time between jobs in New Zealand because there are just not the new jobs out there. A net job loss of 23000 jobs in 2012 makes job search an uphill battle. Just ask the 2500 people who lined up for 150 minimum-wage supermarket jobs at Countdown in Manukau. The job market is dire.While the young the middle-aged and the older workers—men women and teenagers—line up for jobs at minimum wage this Government sits back and waits. It waits for the market to work its miracle. The Government sees the tsunami coming but pretends it is not happening. National is in denial—and have we not already heard that tonight? When the growing tsunami hits the land the Government just watches the devastation it wreaks on the villages below and says that it cannot do anything about it. “The global financial crisis is causing the tsunami.” it says and all it can do is sit watch and wait for the market.Labour has a different view of this man-made tsunami. Labour sees it coming. We know the size of it and we have a plan. Labour looks for the cause and plans to change that but also we know that the damage can be mitigated—Hon Steven Joyce: What is the plan?SUE MORONEY: —by a Government that is prepared to act Mr Joyce a Government that is prepared to act. Labour in Government will not be “relaxed” about leaving its citizens at the mercy of this man-made tsunami and this bill Mr Joyce is an example of the measures that Labour is prepared to take. The National Government will gnash its teeth—and are not National members doing that right now? They will be gnashing their teeth and telling us that imposing the cost of redundancy pay on employers will cause businesses to go under. Well that is a bit rich from a Government that is deliberately overcharging every single business in New Zealand with hiked-up ACC levies that ought to be lowered. But the truth is that it is not workers’ rights orprotections that are causing the tsunami of redundancies sweeping our land; it is a floundering economy—a floundering economy and a Government without a plan or any clues on what to do about it by its own admission.At its heart this bill is about fairness. The global financial crisis and this Government’s lack of a plan to get the economy moving are bad news for all of us but why is it that the burden falls so heavily on workers and their families? Currently an employer can keep their profit margin their income intact while making staff redundant. The employer can keep 100 percent of their income while their employee loses 100 percent of their income. That is just not fair. This bill requires a more even sharing of that burden. It does that by requiring the employer to give at least 4 weeks’ notice of an impending redundancy and by then requiring a redundancy payment of 4 weeks’ pay for the first year of service and 2 weeks’ pay for every year thereafter up to a maximum of 26 weeks’ pay—not a lot to ask. Most people actually believe that this is a legal right now in New Zealand. The number of people who have said to me: “Oh no Sue you don’t need to put that into law; everyone gets it anyway.”—well they are quite wrong. It is what they expect of a country like New Zealand today but it is not currently in the law and that is not fair.I also believe that this bill will also stop a whole lot of other unfair practices. In the last 4 weeks I have had two separate Hamilton people relay similar stories to me. One was a 17-year-old; the other a middle-aged mechanical engineer. In both instances they had been made redundant but in reality others had been employed to do their jobs. In the instance of the 17-year-old another person had been taken on to do the same job as him just 2 weeks before he lost his job. The mechanical engineer was replaced after being made redundant. They have both been unfairly dismissed illegally. They received no notice and no payment and I do believe that if there were a statutory payment for genuine redundancy then that illegal practice would cease.Soon David Bennett from the National Party is going to get on his feet. He is going to weep and wail about this bill being about protecting unions and he will show once again his ignorance—his ignorance in understanding of these issues—because that will be quite wrong. The truth is that people who belong to unions already get redundancy protection. They do not need to have this legislation. It is the people who do not belong to unions who miss out and this bill will rectify that.For those who say this will be bad for business I ask them to take a good long look at what is happening in New Zealand now. Businesses have been going under in record numbers. Has that been caused by worker protections like redundancy pay? No. Has it been caused by big pay demands from unions? No. Has it been caused by inflexible employment laws? No. It is none of the above; it is quite the opposite. The cause has been the global financial crisis brought about by a lack of standards or regulation and a Government that has no plan to grow the economy. What is National’s answer? It wants to reduce workers’ rights and wages as it plans to do with a bill introduced to Parliament just a few weeks ago. Again it has come up with the wrong solutions because it has not identified the cause of the problem it is trying to fix. The problem this bill is trying to fix is the lack of protection for ordinary hard-working New Zealanders who are losing their jobs and incomes every day every week through no fault of their own. I commend this bill to the House.