Recommendations for Fair Pay Agreements set a sound pathway

The Public Service Association (PSA) says recommendations delivered to the Government by the Fair Pay Agreement Working Group today set a sound pathway for a robust employment relations framework in New Zealand.

"The work done by all members of this expert group on the scope and design of a Fair Pay Agreement system, tailored to the specific context of New Zealand, is commendable," says Glenn Barclay, PSA national secretary.

"The recommendations reached by the group clearly lay out a practical way forward for giving all workers in New Zealand access to collective bargaining processes that will deliver a more equal society and more productive economy.

"We now encourage the Government to convert the working group’s recommendations into detailed policy and to follow it through with empowering legislation, as a necessary counterpart to existing collective bargaining and minimum employment standards.

"Moving to a Fair Pay Agreement system as a component part of the overall employment relations and standards system will bring New Zealand into step with other countries in the OECD, where models of combined sector and enterprise level collective bargaining are associated with delivering less wage inequality, better integration of vulnerable groups, higher employment and improved productivity.

"Implementing a fully scoped and designed Fair Pay Agreement system, in the direction researched and agreed by the working group, will help underpin a stronger economy. This is simply about ensuring no workers are left behind in sharing the benefits of a more productive economy that isn’t characterised by a 'race to the bottom' in terms of wages and conditions".

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