Unions Don’t Trust Flip-Flop Brash

The annual leave entitlement would be back to three weeks for most workers under the National Party’s plan to give them the “choice” of cashing in the fourth week of leave, Council of Trade Unions vice-president Helen Kelly said today.

After vehemently opposing the extra week’s annual leave that was announced by the Government earlier this year National has now changed its mind – but says workers can choose to take the extra week, or cash it in.

“This means that the fourth week of leave will be gone by lunchtime for many workers,” Helen Kelly said.

New employees would be particularly vulnerable to pressure to accept employment agreements with just three weeks’ annual leave and to sign away their rights to four weeks, she said.

“The party is trying to resurrect its policy of cashing in holidays that was discredited in the 1990s as being unfair to workers,” she said. “Workers didn’t support it then, and we don’t support it now.”

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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
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• Physical Address - Level 7, West Block, Education House, 178 Willis St, Wellington.

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• Postal Address - PO Box 6645, Marion Square, Wellington 6141.

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