90 day trial periods about to become even more of a minefield


Labour’s associate spokesperson for Labour Darien Fenton says that 90-day trial periods for employees will get messier as the Government moves to force beneficiaries into jobs.

“Today, in the House, I asked Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson if she would consider excluding vulnerable groups from the requirements of the 90 day trial period in the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2008, such as single parents and sickness beneficiaries, who could be forced to work for as little as a dollar an hour,” Darien Fenton said.

“She said ‘no’, which is odd given that her government exempted workers on the Job Ops and Community Max programmes from the 90 day-trial requirements.

“Why doesn’t she offer beneficiaries forced back to work under the government’s so-called ’Future Focus’ legislation a similar exemption?

“The only conclusion is that the Government made an exception for those programmes, which have now ended, to give them a chance to appear successful in order to give the impression the Government was doing something about unemployment.

“Everyone knows that it’s really hard to find jobs at the moment, and particularly those part time jobs fitting around school hours that suit single parents.

“Under the 90-day rule, sickness beneficiaries could be sacked if the employer realised that they were not well enough to do the work, or a single parent sacked on a whim without the right to challenge that decision.

“This is completely unfair. Beneficiaries lucky enough to find a job under the new government tests should not be disadvantaged by rules that give them fewer rights at work,” Darien Fenton said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media