Young Jonathan: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYoung Jonathan: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 30 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:441. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth):Just following on from Mr Lees-Galloway if his Jetstar pilots had sought that advice they would have been told that section 6 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 imposes a general duty on employers to take all practical steps to ensure the safety of employees at work including providing and maintaining a safe working environment. Under that Act employers’ responsibilities for controlling hazards extend to any person’s behaviour resulting from physical or mental fatigue that might be an actual or potential source of harm to themselves or others. So they are obligated under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 section 6 to ensure that their pilots are rested to the extent that they do not in terms of any fatigue cause harm to themselves or any other person. So we need to be very clear that this bill the Employment Relations Amendment Bill does not trump and override the provisions of that Act. That is important for New Zealanders to understand following the very heated and forceful point of view—which carries so many inaccuracies—that the member has put forward.One of the other things is that this Government during its time on this side of the House has been working relentlessly to grow this economy to increase jobs and to increase wages. Just this last year as we know inflation went up 1 percent but the average wage went up 2.7 percent—that is something we celebrate and something we want to see happening more often. So Mr Lees-Galloway’s claim that what we want to do is depress wages is in fact quite contrary to every intent and purpose and goal of this Government.We need to understand that we live in a fast-changing world where it is no longer about competing interests between employers and employees or competing interests between one company and another or one region and another. In today’s world where 85 percent of what we manufacture is exported we need to understand that it is a matter of one country competing against another. In that global market place it is very important that New Zealand maintains its advantage and its advantage is around quality of produce and goods and being able to get it to market in a very competitive way.Therefore we have to ensure that our companies and our economy are flexible to the point where efficiencies can continue to drive that competitive edge which we must maintain in order to sell our products around the world in order that our companies may continue to grow continue to employ people and continue to pay good wages. So what this bill is attempting to do is to bring the flexibility and fairness into our employment relations framework. One of those areas of course is that of collective bargaining. The bill changes the duty of good faith so that it no longer requires parties to conclude a collective agreement—but only under certain conditions. The Employment Relations Authority may declare whether collective bargaining has concluded. The aim of this is to reduce overly protracted bargaining and give some certainty and balance to the collective bargaining framework.We understand of course that the Hon Peter Dunne the United Future leader expressed concern that the bill would embolden employers or employees to merely go through the motions of negotiation only to walk away from collective bargaining simply because they object to the direction the negotiations are taking or to their being party to a collective agreement and then to call in the Employment Relations Authority to declare the end of bargaining. Because of those concerns about possible surface bargaining new section 50KA has been inserted so that the authority cannot declare bargaining concluded if the parties have not complied with the duty of good faith. The employer cannot simply walk away. They must bargain in good faith with the intent of reaching agreement. These changes aim to prevent bargaining becoming unnecessarily protracted and costly which is not good for either party.Just as I conclude my contribution the previous speaker Iain Lees-Galloway talked about rest breaks and meal breaks. What we need is some flexibility around those. We understand that Labour in the last year of the last Labour Government brought in a provision that came into force in 2009. What it means is that under the current legislation New Plymouth Airport’s control tower would have to be closed down while a tea break took place because it is operated by a single person.Imagine a parking building that has a sole attendant. How would you feel Mr Lees-Galloway if you were unable to leave the building for 10 minutes because the attendant was on their statutory break? These are just common-sense issues. These are the real issues that are there and this is the flexibility that is needed. How would it be if in order to maintain the ability for people to move in out of that car-parking building they had to employ somebody else—Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Mate you’re full of it. Don’t be silly.JONATHAN YOUNG: —to take the place of that person for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon? Absolutely Mr Cosgrove it is ridiculous. It is absolutely ridiculous. That is why some of these provisions are there and must be negotiated in good faith.Iain Lees-Galloway: Give me an example—one example.JONATHAN YOUNG: There are plenty of examples.Iain Lees-Galloway: One example. Come on name one. Name one.JONATHAN YOUNG: Stop barking away like that. I have just named a couple all right?Iain Lees-Galloway: No you didn’t.JONATHAN YOUNG: Yes I did indeed. In fact why was it that Labour brought in this provision only in its last year of 9 years in office? Why was it? Was it because it was such a problem? Obviously not—obviously it was not a problem.I believe that this bill is going to create flexibility for employers and employees to work through to come to very good arrangements on how it will work for their work situations. I am very happy to commend this bill to the House.