Pillay Lynne: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Pillay Lynne: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:651;Page:411] 
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour) 
: 
 I start by congratulating Lianne Dalziel on her very constructive comments. Although the Minister in the chair Kate Wilkinson may not have been listening I would hope that members on the other side of the Chamber were listening. Maybe they were thinking they should slip outside and talk to the officials; maybe they were thinking that there had been some constructive advice from this side of the Chamber. 
This is a sad day; it has been a sad few days in this Chamber. We have seen ordinary Kiwis absolutely dealt to by the National - Maori Party - ACT - United Future Government.  
Hon Member 
: It’s a four-headed monster.  
LYNNE PILLAY 
: That is right.  
We have seen either tax increases or the status quo for low-paid workers and modest-income earners. We have seen innovative businesses dealt to. We have seen people’s KiwiSaver dreams and aspirations slashed by National within 2 days. But if we look back at this debate we see that the most insulting thing is for members opposite to argue: “We’re from the Government and we’re here to help workers. We are giving you the right to be sacked in the first 3 months of your employment. We are here to help you and we will make it really easy for you. We are here to provide a really bright future.” Yeah right! 
I can see that every time a member on this side of the Chamber who has had involvement with workers or unions gets up to speak Government members froth at the mouth. I want to talk about the union movement. I want to talk about unions which advocate for warning procedures which teach delegates— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Whatever. You haven’t done a hard day’s work in your life. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: Who said “Whatever.”? The laziest union official in New Zealand Tau Henare. He is right—he never did anything on the job. He was lazy. Every other official in the union movement gets out there and tells employers that if they want to have a good relationship with their employees they should make things clear and have good procedures. They tell employers that they should not threaten employees and that if there is a problem they should give warnings. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: How can I be the laziest union official? They’re all lazy. Where do you think I got it from? I used to work with Rick Barker. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: Poor old Tau! He never got it. He was too busy skiving off work as he does around here. He never got on to it. But I am telling him that members who have worked in the union movement worked for workers’ interests and worked to see businesses do well know that good businesses say to their employees: “Let’s have a constructive relationship. Let’s talk about how to make things go right and if there are problems let’s talk about how we address them.” They do not put people’s livelihoods at risk because they may or may not make a mistake. 
Workers might change their hairstyle as Wayne Mapp has done. He got innovative; he went out and got a cool hairstyle. We in Parliament say we like it and he looks cool; MPs in Parliament have been saying that Dr Mapp has made an effort and he looks nice. But an employer might say: “Wayne I don’t like your hairstyle so you’re sacked.” Where is the redress? It is a new hairstyle. It is a 90-day hairstyle. [ 
Interruption 
] Exactly! Members on this side are saying that that sort of thing needs to stop. We need a constructive dialogue. Although Tau Henare when he was in the union movement did not promote that we did. 
The employers’ organisations have to take some responsibility here. They have a duty to educate their members their constituency about constructive working relationships. The answer is not to lose people’s skills or to deprive people of their livelihoods because they have not had the opportunity to put things right. If they have made a real error—rather than doing something that the employer just does not like on a whim—or if they are not performing then surely it is fair and reasonable that that issue is raised with them so that they can correct it.