Nash Stuart: Employment Standards Legislation Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNash Stuart: Employment Standards Legislation Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 08 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9488. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART NASH (Labour—Napier): First of all I would like to congratulate Iain Lees-Galloway on the fantastic work he has done on standing up for those who do not have a voice who are disenfranchised or who are unable to stand up for themselves—I say very much congratulations. The interesting thing is I put a post about this on Facebook. There was one negative comment. The reply to those comments from a whole lot of different people was astounding. The reason I say that is that you do not have to be on a zero-hour contract to think that they are simply unfair. I think the foundation of New Zealand is built on fairness. We do not like to think that we are being treated unfairly; nor do we like to see others being treated unfairly.Back to the bill. I would like to talk about clause 83 which amends section 3. Replaced section 3(a)(v) inserted by clause 83(1) states: “by promoting mediation as the primary problem-solving mechanism other than for enforcing employment standards;”. I am a huge fan of mediation for a number of reasons. It saves costs. It saves time. It does not clog up the courts. It is non-binding. It is different from arbitration. Arbitration is binding; mediation is not. So if you really do not like the outcome there are other remedies you can seek. But it is an incredibly effective way to solve disputes and nip them in the bud.But one thing I would like the Minister in the chair to talk about is how this is going to take effect. We have a very effective organisation within the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and it is called Employment Mediation Services. The problem we have is that on 1 December last year Employment Mediation Services put out a proposal saying it was going to restructure: “The location of our offices does not always correspond to where the demand is which means we are unable to respond to regional challenges over time.” The thing about this though—at the moment there are mediation services in Auckland Palmerston North Dunedin Hamilton Christchurch and Wellington. These are widely used. It shows that clause 83 is actually very relevant because mediation services are a very important part of the whole employment process.But what the proposal put forward by Employment Mediation Services outlined was that it is going to do away with the Palmerston North office it is going to do away with the Dunedin office it is going to do away with the Napier office and it is going to centralise these services in Auckland Manukau Hamilton Wellington and Christchurch. In terms of mediation let me outline the importance to the regions of effective mediation. In Napier for example in 2010 there were 256 mediation cases heard. In 2014 there were 332. In Palmerston North last year there were 232 cases heard Hamilton 615 Dunedin 266 and in Auckland there were 1541 cases heard. The point I am making here is that mediation is an incredibly important way to resolve disputes between employers and employees. This is not always an employee with a grievance against an employer. It can be that an employer has a grievance against an employee. Either way we need to retain these mediation services in the form and the locations they are in at the moment.According to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment website the restructuring was going to be known in mid-March 2016. If I look at my watch mid-March 2016 is about now. So let us hope the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety can actually tell us what is going to happen to Employment Mediation Services especially in light of this. And this is the first clause in the amendment to the Employment Relations Act where it talks about promoting mediation as the primary problem-solving mechanism—the primary problem-solving mechanism. And what the initial proposal put out by Employment Mediation Services said was that it was going to contract services out. So this was a further hollowing out—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): OK I am now going to interrupt the member. He has been very repetitious when he is not being irrelevant. So I want to encourage the member in the 10 seconds he has got left to try to stay within the rules.STUART NASH: Thank you Mr Chair. I suppose—and you are right Mr Chair I have been repetitious but the reason I have is that I want to make a very clear point: mediation services are vital not just in the big city centres but right across the regions.