Survey Shows Employment Law Weakness

The results of a new survey confirm growth in union membership but also identify the weaknesses in the Employment Relations Act’s capacity to promote collective bargaining as it was intended to do, Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said today.

The annual survey by Victoria University’s Industrial Relations Centre showed union membership had increased for the fourth year in a row.

However, it also said the ERA had not turned back the anti-union tide of the Employment Contracts Act, so large sections of the workforce were still disadvantaged by not being able to bargain collectively.

The report was further evidence for the need for amendments to strengthen the Act, as contained in the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill currently before Parliament, Ross Wilson said.

“Unless there is marked growth in collective bargaining, thousands of New Zealand workers will continue to be disadvantaged – as yesterday’s Human Rights Commission report confirmed.”

© Scoop Media

New Zealand Council of Trade Unions

Te Kauae Kaimahi

The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi brings together over 350,000 New Zealand union members in 40 affiliated unions. We are the united voice for working people and their families in New Zealand.

CONTACT NEW ZEALAND COUNCIL OF TRADE UNIONS

• Website - union.org.nz/
• Phone - +64 4 385 1334
• YouTube
• Physical Address - Level 7, West Block, Education House, 178 Willis St, Wellington.

• Media Contact - huiaw@nzctu.org.nz
• Facebook
• Twitter - @FairnessNZ
• Postal Address - PO Box 6645, Marion Square, Wellington 6141.

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>