The claim of the Service & Food Workers Union (SFWU) that the Employment Relations Bill will help restore some balance into employment relations is “absolute claptrap,” ACT leader Richard Prebble said today.

“The only people to benefit from this dangerous, economy-wrecking Bill are the unions. Their power base has dropped since 1990 and for their support in the election, this weak coalition government is trying to return the country to compulsory unionism – a power these rabble rousers do not deserve,” Mr Prebble said.

"Darien Fenton of the SFWU says the Employment Relations Bill is not a union wish-list. What rot! She and fellow union activists took an active part in a secret Labour Party meeting on December 22 last year and told what the government what to put in the Bill. This legislation is far more radical than anything proposed in either the Labour or Alliance manifestos.”

For Ms Fenton to say the government has a mandate to repeal the Employment Contracts Act is just more rot. They have no mandate for this Bill. We are going to see the destruction of small businesses in New Zealand, and probably the exit of large businesses to Australia,” he said.

Mr Prebble has been holding seminars against the Bill up and down the country, and has had several employers tell him they are putting off any job creation, expansion, and were thinking of moving their companies overseas.

“Jim Anderton berates the Reserve Bank for raising the official cash rate, saying it will cost jobs. This Bill will do more than cost jobs. It will relegate New Zealand to a Pacific backwater and undo all the work of the last 15 years,” Mr Prebble said.

Submissions on the Employment Relations Bill close on May 3. The Employment select committee started hearing oral submissions on the Bill today.

Interested people can make submissions through the ACT website at: http://www.act.org.nz/action/employment/submission.html or fax submissions to ACT’s Parliamentary office (04) 473 3532. ENDS

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

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