Swain Paul: Employment Relations Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
Swain Paul: Employment Relations Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:620;Page:16156] 
Hon PAUL SWAIN (Minister of Labour) 
: 
 Employment relations is all about balance. I have learnt that and it is important to get the balance right. Part 4 which relates to the Human Rights Act brings in some balance. Essentially it states that if a person were to complain for example about sexual harassment or racial discrimination then obviously there are two channels that person is able to take: either to go through the human rights channel or through the employment relations channel. It is fair to say that under the Employment Contracts Act—and before I hear outrage from the National Party that this legislation is a disgrace and is all about pro-unionism I will tell members this—people had the right to be able to choose whether they went according to the human rights way or the employment contracts way in order to try to get a resolution of their complaint. It is fair to say that the point at which they were cut off and had to choose the particular channel they wanted to go down was very early and people were confused about whether their complaint would be proceeded with. What happened with regard to the Employment Relations Act is that it is probably fair to say that the balance went too far in the other way. In fact people were almost able to negotiate—that is to take a complaint through the human rights system while at the same time taking it through the Employments Relations Authority. That was probably going too far in the other way. 
This legislation attempts to bring about some balance. Essentially it states that if a person gets to the point where he or she can lay a complaint provides that new section 79A(4) if an employee makes a complaint under the human rights legislation the employee may not exercise or continue to exercise any rights relating to the subject matter of the complaint that the employee may have under the Employment Relations Act. So if a person makes a complaint and he or she decides that complaint is to go down the human rights avenue that cuts off the opportunity to go through the employment relations channel. New section 79A(5) is exactly the opposite of that—that is if an employee chooses the employment relations way to go then he or she cannot continue on with his or her complaint through the human rights channel. 
The measure is about 40 lines in length and not particularly controversial in my view. The issue is something that has been around since the Employment Contracts Act where people had the right to be able to make a complaint. They should be able to make a complaint. However this legislation is about making sure that once people have made a complaint they must choose one channel. Once the complaint is made under employment relations law that is the channel people must go down. They cannot continue to have their complaint looked at in both the employment relations and the human rights channel but must choose whichever one they are in. The legislation simply states that once a person has decided to make the complaint the complaint is heard under that particular channel so that the person cannot have two bites at the cherry. As I have said the issue is about balance. The cut-off point under the Employment Contracts Act was a bit early and the decision point was a bit early. In the Employment Relations Act it was probably a bit late and that allowed too much choice to go on. This legislation attempts to try to bring some balance back and I recommend it to the Committee.