Little Andrew: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Little Andrew: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1196. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW LITTLE (Labour) 
: 
 I was talking about the necessity for this bill the Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill. The reality is that most unions of any substance and any size already have as one of the requirements in their rules the fact that any strike action needs to be supported by a secret ballot. The Maritime Union has it the rest home workers who belong to the Service and Food Workers Union have it and the meat workers employed by Talley’s AFFCO have it in their agreements. Most of those meat workers of course are being locked out. Some are taking strike action and they take strike action as a result of a secret ballot. 
The proposal to have the clause that requires unions’ rules to provide for a secret ballot is the most sensible way forward. We—that is this Parliament—do not want to get into the Incorporated Societies Act and dictate to societies and organisations that are incorporated under the Incorporated Societies Act and have them being told what to do. This Parliament could not do that. We have hundreds of thousands of interest groups and societies—do not let this be a precedent and a start for this Parliament deciding how private organisations collective organisations of individuals should run themselves and conduct themselves. That is a matter for them. For trade unions which have been in this business for well over 100 years that is the way they have conducted themselves. 
The bill as originally drafted is unnecessary. Unions and their members who belong voluntarily to these organisations are quite capable of deciding their rules themselves. Let it be a requirement for registration as a union that the union’s rules are proper appropriate and fit for purpose and that may well include the need to have a ballot to take strike action. But members should also understand that our industrial legislation has always provided a countervailing balance and it has always been the principle for New Zealand industrial legislation. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander so if it is a requirement that workers are required to conduct a secret ballot when they take a strike so too for the employer when they take the egregious action of locking out workers depriving them of their income against their will; so too the employer should be bound by obligations of procedural fairness. That is provided for as well in Labour’s proposals. 
This bill is unnecessary; we continue to see it as unnecessary. Unions are quite happily getting on with what limited rights they have these days anyway. That will change of course on the change of Government and workers will be free once again to express their views and act appropriately and properly in the workplace as they once did. But in the meantime this will add nothing. It is not as if either for the member who is promoting this bill or for the party he comes from there are not some bigger issues to deal with in this day and age. It is not just about getting married so he can take trips to Uganda either. It is really serious stuff important things that we need to be doing. 
Trying to interfere with voluntary trade unions simply is not going to lift productivity and it is not going to provide the better future that has been promised either here or in Finland. We say that the member’s bill is unnecessary but our proposals provide a sensible way forward for unions for when they are registered. Thank you.