Lees-Galloway Iain: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLees-Galloway Iain: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 30 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:439. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North):Labour is deeply and sincerely opposed to this legislation. It shows the arrogance of this National Government that the first thing it does after being elected to office for this third term—the first thing it does—is to undermine workers’ rights to undermine health and safety at work and to pass legislation that has just one purpose and that is to keep wages down. John Key said he was going to govern in the interests of all New Zealanders but what his first piece of legislation does—the first thing that this Government does—is to drive down wages for the vast majority of ordinary working people.New Zealanders do not want these changes. The overwhelming majority—thousands of submitters—came to the select committee wrote to the select committee and told this Government: “Do not pass this law.” I distinctly remember when the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee went down to Christchurch. It was a difficult day. You could tell the strain and the pressure that the people of Christchurch were under. One submitter said something that really hit home with me. She said: “We have enough insecurity enough instability enough things in our lives that make life so difficult. Please don’t add one more thing that will make our lives more insecure.” That really hit home with members on our side of the House anyway but it obviously did not have an ounce of impact on the Government members.This legislation works to undermine collective bargaining. It works to undermine unions’ efforts for industry standards. It brings in niggardly little taxes such as the strike tax to punish people who take partial industrial action. Just today workers at Statistics New Zealand are enforcing work-to-rule regulations and there is no doubt that this Government will attack those public servants with the provisions that it is passing in this law today. It removes the Part 6A protections for vulnerable workers—people like the cleaners who come into this building when our work is done. They come in and work through the night. Some of the lowest-paid and most vulnerable workers in New Zealand are having their rights undermined by this Government. It says that employers can just walk away from collective bargaining. So when unions make any claims that might be a little bit difficult or might actually require the employer to sit at the table and work through difficult issues—whether they be about pay whether they be about conditions or whether they be about the state of the industry which is something that both the employer and the workers should be interested in; anything that is difficult—the employer can get up walk away from the table and get an opinion from the Employment Relations Authority that bargaining has concluded. Then of course we know what the employer will do next. It will look to put everybody on to individual employment agreements—divide and rule—and keep wages down.One of the most insidious aspects of this legislation is the removal of the requirement to put a new employee on the same terms and conditions as any collective agreement in that workplace during the first 30 days. Right now if an employer wants to put an employee on better terms and conditions than the collective agreement it is entitled to do so. So the only change—the only thing that this change can be designed to do—is to put new employees on less favourable terms and conditions than those prescribed in any collective employment agreement that exists in that workplace. That is the only reason that a Government would pass this legislation. What is that designed to do? To make new employees more vulnerable and to drive down wages in the workplace.I heard the stand-in Minister refer to the fact that productivity should be the driver of wage increases and we on this side of the House absolutely agree. Since 1989 labour productivity in New Zealand has increased by 58 percent. Wages—real wages—in New Zealand have increased over that period of time by just 18 percent. The benefits of improved productivity have overwhelmingly gone to the owners of businesses and not to the workers in businesses. And this Government has the gall to say that increased productivity will lead to improved wages and that we should not legislate to strengthen workers’ rights so that they have the right to bargain for better wages. Well clearly even under the legislative provisions that we have had in the last decade workers’ pay has simply not kept up with productivity. The benefits of improved productivity have been going to the few—the people whom National always stands for—and not to the many.We need strong legislation—the opposite of what this Government is passing today—to ensure that a growing economy and better economic outcomes are shared by everybody and not held by just a tiny number a privileged few. That is what today’s changes will do. They will enshrine and entrench the privilege of those who have benefited from economic growth over the last decades and it will continue to disenfranchise those who have struggled to make ends meet to put food on the table to put a roof over their families’ heads and to give their families the opportunities that they want.Unlike this Government whose members do not listen when people come to a select committee and make submissions we went out to the people of New Zealand over the last week and we asked them what they thought of the changes to rest and meal breaks. We started a petition a mere week ago. Today that petition was tabled in Parliament—51628 New Zealanders have signed the petition over the last week because they want this Government to know that getting rid of rest and meal breaks will make them less safe and less productive at work. On this side of the House we believe in listening to what New Zealanders have to say. We do not dismiss what ordinary Kiwis have to say about legislation and we will listen to the 51628 people who have told this Government to stop cutting back on rest and meal breaks and to stop the other changes that are in this legislation that undermine the rights of working people.I know that members opposite think that rest and meal breaks are something insignificant. They think it is a trivial matter. Well there are plenty of examples of why this is not trivial. Jetstar pilots had to go to the Employment Court to make sure that their rights to rest and meal breaks under the current legislation were upheld because pilots like Richard Greenslade could start work as early as 5 o’clock in the morning and finish as late as midnight. Because they have duties whilst their planes are on the ground there was no opportunity for pilots like Richard to take a rest and meal break throughout the day. The Employment Court turned round to Jetstar and said: “No under the current law you are required to provide for rest and meal breaks.” As someone who flies fairly regularly I have to say that I think it is pretty important our pilots get rest and meal breaks to make sure they are refreshed and ready to pilot their planes to make sure not just that they are safe at work but that their passengers are safe as well.The changes to this law which the National Government is passing today would validate Jetstar’s decision not to provide rest and meal breaks to pilots like Richard. That endangers the safety of every single person in New Zealand who travels on an aircraft. And there are countless other examples of how workers’ safety and the safety of all New Zealanders will be undermined by the changes made in this legislation. That is why we will listen to the 51628 people who have signed this petition telling the Government to keep their rest and meal breaks to save their rights and to not further erode the rights of working people in New Zealand.Labour is deeply and sincerely opposed to this legislation because it is not in the interests of ordinary working people. It will not improve wages. It will not improve health and safety. It simply makes more people more vulnerable which frankly is the legacy of this National Government.