Govt. turns its back on small business and staff
Govt. turns its back on small business and their staff
National is vowing to represent the employers and staff in small and medium sized businesses, who are taken aback by the Government’s extreme approach on employment law and ACC, Opposition Leader Jenny Shipley said today.
“Small and medium businesses were lulled into believing Labour and the Alliance would be reasonable in their approach to business. But they’ve been pulled up short with the contents of the Employment Relations Bill and the Accident Insurance (Transitional Provisions) Bill.
“The Government has gone further than many expected. Many small and medium- sized businesses are learning the hard way that this Government refuses to listen to them,” Mrs Shipley said.
“National strongly opposes the Employment Relations Bill and the ACC changes because they put blocks in the path of prosperity, jobs and growth.
“Our opposition has been given fresh impetus since the election as many small and medium-sized businesses are being trodden on. The Employment Relations Bill, debated in Parliament today, is based on ideas that might have seemed sensible in the 1930s, but make absolutely no sense in today’s vastly different world.
“The Employment Relations Bill has enormous potential to curtail our competitiveness by adding costs to business, limiting innovation and change and ultimately shutting down job creation.
“Overseas competitors will not be subject to the same constraints in modernising business, and overseas investors won’t invest in our businesses while subject to the constraints.
“If you believed the Government you’d think the country was full of employers and staff at their throats. Get real. Times have changed. More often than not employers and staff are in the same boat working together to lift the performance of their organisation.
“The Bill does not provide for a new nation or a new future, but is just a resurrection of an old dinosaur that most people long thought was extinct.”
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