26 October 2012

Companies must pay what they owe to workers

The Labour Minister should publicly commit to keeping the protections for vulnerable workers in the Employment Relations Act, the Green Party said today.

Last night the High Court released their decision that Pacific Flight Catering must pay the accrued leave owed to their previous employees who were transferred when the catering contract changed hands. The Employment Relations Act 2000 has protections for workers whose employers lose contracts, so that they can transfer to the new company without losing their accrued leave.

“This High Court decision means that the law is working as it should,” Green Party industrial relations spokesperson Denise Roche said.

“Companies have been lobbying the National Government to slash these protections in a review of the Employment Relations Act but their assertions that the current law is unworkable are now proven to be unfounded,” said Ms Roche.

“Cleaning company Crest’s Managing Director Grant McLauchlan has been quoted saying that these protections were "poorly drafted and controversial”, but the High Court shows that is not true.

“The reason we have this law is because when contracts changed hands, workers were doing exactly the same job just in a new uniform having lost all of their entitlements, and that was not fair.

“Companies that may lose a contract still owe their employees their proper allowances and this decision means they have to pay it.

“The Minister of Labour, Kate Wilkinson, needs to make a commitment to keeping these protections unchanged in the law as there is no legitimate reason to remove them.

“This Government’s anti-worker stance does not give me confidence that it will keep these protections for vulnerable workers so I want to hear the Minister making that commitment.

"The law works, and there is no need for the Government to make changes to reduce protections for vulnerable workers,” said Ms Roche.

ENDS

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