Woodhouse Michael: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWoodhouse Michael: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 10 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9607. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): I move That the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill the Employment Relations Amendment Bill (No 3) the Holidays Amendment Bill the Minimum Wage Amendment Bill and the Wages Protection Amendment Bill be now read a third time. Between them these bills will make significant improvements to the fairness and productivity of all workplaces across the country. Employees such as casual and seasonal workers workers who have recently changed jobs and workers who work for more than one employer will now be eligible to receive parental leave payments. Primary carers other than biological or adoptive parents who none the less still have a primary responsibility for the care development and upbringing of a child under the age of 6 will also be entitled to parental leave payments and leave. This includes whangai arrangements.Employees will be able to keep in touch with their employer during the period of parental leave payments undertaking a limited number of hours of work if both parties agree. This will enable them to take part in a training day for example without losing their entitlement to paid leave and they will have a greater flexibility and choice in how they take their unpaid parental leave. Going back to work during this time will not end their paid leave entitlement. Alongside the extension to 18 weeks of parental leave payments from 1 April this year these changes will make a significant difference to families raising children in New Zealand. The changes support families during an important time in the child’s life while supporting attachment to the labour market so that it is easier to transition back into work when the time is right. The parents of babies born prior to 37 weeks’ gestation will be entitled to additional weeks of parental leave payments—which could be as many as 13 weeks extra—to better support them during what can be a particularly challenging time.The provisions strengthening the enforcement of employment standards will ensure that we have a robust compliance and enforcement regime for these minimum standards. There is a comprehensive range of sanctions available to deal proportionately with all non-compliancefrom infringement notices for breaches of record-keeping requirements to significantly higher penalties for the most serious breaches. Employees’ rights will be better protected and compliant employers will be able to compete on a more equal playing field.The main change to these provisions as the original bill passed through the parliamentary process has been to the record-keeping provisions. The work done both at the select committee and in the Committee of the whole House has significantly improved these provisions. All employers are required to have a record of the hours their employees work each day and the pay they receive for those hours. This record is essential both for correctly calculating minimum entitlements and demonstrating compliance with those entitlements. Guidance is provided as to how this requirement can be met. This guidance balances the need to have an accurate record of hours and pay when necessary for calculating and demonstrating compliance with minimum entitlements while avoiding imposing unnecessary compliance costs on employers.The provisions also make it harder for individuals or other third parties to hide behind corporate structures of the employer and evade responsibility when they are knowingly and intentionally involved in breaching employment standards. Being able to target both individuals and companies will strengthen the incentives to comply with these important legal obligations. Finally the changes in these bills get rid of zero-hour contracts and other unfair practices in employment relationships. I have always been confident that the original bill was in very good shape in this respect and that it struck the right balance of mutual and reciprocal obligations for employers and employees. However amendments have been made in the Committee of the whole House to availability provisions the notice period for shift cancellations the obligations to put matters in writing in the agreement and a number of other minor technical amendments.Hon Members: Minor technical amendments!Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: The crowing has started already. I did think they would leave it until the end of the first speech but no. As a whole these clauses will make employers consider carefully whether they truly need availability provisions while still providing flexibility in circumstances where there is a genuine need for them. This means a better balance of flexibility for employers and certainty for employees.In conclusion I want to reiterate my thanks to the submitters for their contribution to improvements to the bill to members of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee under the sage chairmanship of my friend Jonathan Young and to the officials who supported the committee and me in what were very important and complex drafting challenges. I also want to thank members of this House and of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions who worked with me to make some minor changes to the bill.Hon Members: Oh!Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: I have no doubt—the crowing has started—that in these final debates we will hear many members of other parties giving themselves high praise and pats on the back for their vital and earth-shattering contribution to improvements to the bill. Good on them. Let them claim whatever victory they think they deserve. I claim no such praise but I do reflect with a small amount of pride that I may have achieved a rare thing—a significant change to employment law that looks likely to have the unanimous support of all parties in this House right across the political spectrum. Perhaps this is a victory for Parliament as a whole.I also want to add this. The real winners today are not we members who congratulate ourselves so heartily on whatever victory we may claim. The real winners are New Zealand employees who when these bills are passed will have a materially improved parental leave entitlement strengthened requirements on their employers for record-keeping and other obligations and the end of pernicious conditions known as zero hours. They are the real winners. I commend these bills to the House.