Delahunty Catherine: Employment Standards Legislation Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: Employment Standards Legislation Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 08 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9489. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Chair. Tēnā koutou e Te Wharenui ko tēnei pō. I really want to congratulate the people outside this Chamber tonight as well as the people inside this Chamber who are making this work. I want to stand up for the value of organised labour because without the organisation and the challenges put out by the people on the streets through this campaign I doubt that we would be here tonight. So I think it is a matter of congratulations due to the organised labour to the union organisations that took this to employers and said before it even came to Parliament: “We don’t need this in this country; this is not what we’re about.”And so Part 2 is an example of sensible policy responding to the leadership of the people on the streets. For example when the Unite union went to Restaurant Brands and said to them “This is not good. We do not need these multinational food chains to take advantage of vulnerable workers.” it was actually really encouraging to hear Russel Creedy say that when the union approached the company about providing better certainty over working hours he immediately saw that change was needed. So to quote him: “Having permanent staff who stay with us—loyal long tenure—is part of a successful business model for our industry”.So that is leadership on both sides: the people who organised the workers and approached the unions and then went to the employers and got that kind of buy-in and then there are the people who have had to go further. For example although Burger King and Restaurant Brands which owns KFC Pizza Hut and Carl’s Jr—I do not know these companies because I do not eat this kind of food—actually they were good but McDonald’s was a problem and Wendy’s was a problem. There had to be protests and demonstrations. There had to be an international day of strike action by fast-food workers. And that is a tribute to the fact that people need to be organised.One of my fears about this country is that young people do not understand at the moment what a union is and do not understand the value of it until they have an experience like this. Many young people are responsible for this bill and for Part 2 because they got involved they stood up for themselves and they pointed out that being on minimum wages with uncertain hours—people who walked into these places coming to all shifts but not given any more hours. These people stood their ground protested loudly and slammed zero-hour contracts. So they helped us do the right thing.We do not live in this magnificent moralistically pure ethical bubble where we make great decisions on behalf of the country. That is actually not how change happens in this country. It happens because people will not be silent because organised labour will represent them because they join unions and because they stand up.I also want to pay tribute in part particularly to the work that a number of people across the Chamber have done on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee but also to Denise Roche for putting up her earlier member’s bill which had some very clear provisions related to Part 2 that again were a serious contribution that needs to be acknowledged. It would have guaranteed employees a contract with fixed minimum hours for employees who are in the practice of working regular hours after a period of 90 days of work unless the employee opts out of the arrangement. Notice where the power lies: it lies with the employee having the ability to opt out.Denise’s bill which she withdrew when she saw that the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety was making public statements in support of getting rid of the zero-hours contract bit of this bill also had a part in her bill that said “remove the ability from employers to put in exclusivity clauses in casual contracts which forbid workers from seeking other employment from other employers.” And I have heard good speeches tonight from right across the Chamber about why that is anathema. And so all credit to Denise Roche and to everyone else who put up Supplementary Order Papers but also put up bills during this process in response to the great work of the people on the streets saying: “This is not good enough.”I just want to make the hair stand up on your head or the back of your neck or wherever a bit. In the United Kingdom where this legislation went through some time ago the Office for National Statistics said that last year the number of people reporting they work on contracts with no minimum hours has risen to 744000. It has increased by almost a fifth in the last year spiking concerns that employers are turning to this arrangement to cut back workers’ pay and conditions. So it is great that these Supplementary Order Papers on Part 2 will not allow this to happen.