Stewart Barbara: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStewart Barbara: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:307. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA STEWART (NZ First):Firstly can I say congratulations Mr Chairman on your appointment to this very important role in our Parliament and we have to say congratulations to the other Speakers as well. We look forward to working with you all.I am pleased to take a call on behalf of New Zealand First to ensure that New Zealanders know that we are definitely opposed to this Employment Relations Amendment Bill just as they are and we have not heard anything in any part of this debate that will make us change our minds. The title of the bill gives us an indication of the serious matters that are actually covered by the bill changing workplace conditions as they are known today. It is definitely not about improving employee relations. Last week when we were talking about this bill we were asked to provide some novelty so in the interests of providing this novelty we put our thinking caps on and decided to come up with some different titles. The first one that we thought of was “Back to the Past Amendment Bill”. The fact that tea breaks and lunch breaks can be totally negotiated away is ludicrous. Back to the early 1900s we return when these breaks were not considered necessary at all.Perhaps we could also call the bill the “Stamp on Health and Safety Bill”? In the last Parliament we passed a lot of bills focused on ensuring that worker safety was at the focus of all workplaces but this bill we believe is actually putting health and safety at risk. All workers regardless of their job need a break. After a break productivity is usually higher the focus of the workers is higher and of course the potential for accidents is a little less but this legislation has got the potential to erode all the previous legislation that we have put through in this area. The bottom line is that all workers have got the right to return home safely at the end of their work day. We on this side of the Chamber know that many of the workers today are working more than one job to try to make ends meet. Of course how easy it will be to negotiate away your lunch breaks and tea breaks to ensure that you get just that little bit more money. They will negotiate away this basic right and we will have challenges.We can also call the bill the “Anti-worker Amendment Bill”. We all know that the employment relationship is not a level playing field despite the Government telling us that it is. If you are a young worker and there are numerous other groups as well not many of those workers and groups have got the capacity or the capability to negotiate with the employer. It is not a level playing field. And guess what? Many of the workers do not want to negotiate because they fear for their jobs. We know that employment should be a collaborative relationship but despite the hype jobs are not numerous in most regions throughout New Zealand. I know. I look in my region in the Waikato and there are not a lot of jobs going there. Everybody wants to keep the job that they have got so of course they will negotiate away tea breaks lunch breaks anything to ensure that they retain their job.We could also call the bill the “Employment Relations Minus Common Sense Bill”. Common sense is actually missing from this piece of legislation. There has been absolutely no call from employers or employees for this bill or any of the criteria that are in it. It has not been the result of a gap that has been identified in the workplaces. Employees and employers were working together so why change what has actually been working quite well? It is not common sense. We believe that this bill has got the potential to create a very hostile work environment with a decrease in productivity. The fact that the Act comes into force 4 months after the date on which it receives the Royal assent really raises some questions for us. So we believe that the title of this bill is not right. It does need to be reviewed and we would like to see some other titles come up. This bill is not for workers. Thank you.