Moroney Sue: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In Committee Recommittal Third Reading 
Moroney Sue: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In Committee Recommittal Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:454] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 This is a wide-ranging debate and it is the last opportunity in the Committee stage to get some answers to some very important and very detailed questions which the public have the right to know. This is their only chance to have those questions answered because the Minister in her wisdom has decided to shortcut the democratic process to rush this legislation through and to ensure that the public and the practitioners in this area do not get a chance to ask these questions themselves through the select committee process. These questions must be answered in the Committee stage because this is the last opportunity for the New Zealand public to learn and understand what on earth was in the Minister’s mind when she proposed this bill and proposed it in such haste. 
This is the opportunity to talk about the bill’s title and commencement date. The title is the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. I am sure that sounds like quite a benign title to the many people who are listening to this debate— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Innocuous. 
SUE MORONEY 
: It is an innocuous title—the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. I say this in the context of people having become used to a Labour-led Government amending the Employment Relations Act. In that context over the last decade New Zealand workers have known that every time the Employment Relations Act has been amended by a Labour-led Government it has been amended in favour of workers. The Labour-led Government has amended the Employment Relations Act in order to enhance protections for workers. So I would not blame people if they thought that another Employment Relations Amendment Bill was going to enhance protections for workers’ rights because that is what has been happening for the last decade under a Labour-led Government. But they would be quite misled if that is what they believed. That is why I think the title does not really tell the public what is going on. In the context of having had a Labour-led Government protecting and enhancing workers’ rights for almost a decade now why would people think that an Employment Relations Amendment Bill might come along and take away workers’ rights? 
They need to understand this because the Government has changed. This is an amendment to the Employment Relations Act under a National-led Government. Guess what? It does take away workers’ rights. This is the first time for almost a decade in this country that workers’ rights have been depleted by amending the Employment Relations Act. 
The Labour-led Government has been enhancing workers’ rights be it by the introduction of paid parental leave and increases and enhancements to it; 4 weeks’ annual leave; or amendments to the Employment Relations Act to give protection to vulnerable workers whose jobs have been contracted out. The last time previous to this that the Employment Relations Act was amended it was to give workers the right to have meal breaks and rest periods while at work. That was the very last time this Act was amended so it is no wonder that some people will be fooled into thinking that an Employment Relations Amendment Bill is something that enhances and protects workers’ rights. But this one does no such thing. 
In talking about the meal breaks and rest periods that most recent amendment to the Employment Relations Act I recall the select committee deliberations held on that particular amendment. The Minister in the chair was at the time a member of the select committee that heard the submissions. One submission that really sticks in my mind was from a young man from Hamilton. He came to the select committee to tell us that he had been sacked because he had dared to take a lunch break from his job at Subway in Hamilton. That was the evidence we heard. I still recall the Minister in the chair Kate Wilkinson when she was a member of that select committee saying to this young man: “Yes but that’s illegal and you can take a personal grievance to address the wrong that has happened to you.” Yes that was said by the very Minister who is now sitting in the chair. We asked this young man: “How long have you been working at Subway?”. Guess what? It was for fewer than 90 days. Under this National-led Government he will no longer have the right to take a personal grievance. The same member of Parliament who is now the Minister and sitting in the chair calmed down the young man by saying: “Never mind you’ve got the right of legal redress.” She advised him that he should take a personal grievance. But now she is the Minister she is taking away his right to a personal grievance in his first 90 days of employment. There is a word for that but I am not allowed to use it in this Chamber.