Kedgley Sue: Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Kedgley Sue: Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 I would like to pick up from the point that the New Zealand First member Peter Brown made which was that we and in particular the Minister of Labour Ruth Dyson have bent over backwards to try to accommodate the needs of employers. Many of their requests are enshrined in the amendments that the Minister has made and I take this opportunity to thank the Minister for her hard work in coming up with amendments to improve this bill. 
In particular I commend her amendment that extends the right of flexible working hours to any employee who has the care of any person. I think the Minister has made a fantastic amendment. Indeed she has met with and talked with Business New Zealand and has made a series of amendments—I will not go through them all—that meet many perhaps most of its concerns. There is all this nonsense that someone could take this matter to the Supreme Court—not that anyone ever would—and just for the avoidance of doubt the Minister has proposed an amendment that will ensure that the matter cannot go beyond the Employment Relations Authority. So she has made a series of amendments and I think they have greatly improved the bill. 
I have made an amendment too which states that when the legislation is reviewed in 2 years’ time we will see whether the provisions of this part should extend to all employees. I personally would love to see the provisions extended now but I think that extending them first to those in greatest need who are caring for other persons whether they are children or elderly parents means that in 2 years’ time there will be general consensus to extend them to all employees. This is what has happened in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom before the legislation was introduced it was vehemently opposed by the business community for exactly the same reasons the National Party is talking about today. Of course its members are talking here on behalf of Business New Zealand. But the point is that surveys now show that 90 percent of UK employers say they have had no significant problems in complying with the new right. Indeed I have a quote here from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development representing 127000 members in British management and personnel: “The existing right to request flexible working has been well received by employers has successfully encouraged rather than compelled them to experiment with flexible working practices” etc. 
The other point I would like to make concerns National Party members—rather weak in their arguments—saying that people can ask for flexible working hours. Well of course they can ask. They can ask to have their pay increased by $300 an hour. They can ask for 6 months’ holiday every year. They can ask but they are not likely to get it. Surveys done by the Department of Labour show that the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders need and support more flexible working hours. The majority of them support this legislation. 
I also say that if most employers were providing flexible work hours as the National Party claims why would 93 percent of 5000 parents in a recent survey say that flexible working hours is the change they would most like to see in their workplaces to help them juggle their work and home responsibilities? In many cases what is claimed to be flexible working arrangements turn out to be little more than the ability sometimes just to work a lunch hour or to go to the dentist. Paul Callister who is an expert in this area said the situation is that employers say they are family-friendly and probably believe it—and some are—but employees are grinding their teeth. We are finding that employees are saying that despite all the rhetoric and all the talk about flexible working hours and work-life balance there has been very very little change. In particular in areas like nursing the union says that literally thousands of nurses out there have indicated they would like to work but they need more flexible working arrangements to accommodate their families.