Unite Union National Director Mike Treen says the Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse has repeatedly lied to New Zealanders when he said that he would bring and to end zero hour contracts.

Unite Union made this a public issue earlier this year when it labelled the fast food companies zero hour employers in their recent collective employment negotiations.

"We got overwhelming public support and sympathy in our successful efforts to end these contracts in this industry.

"Michael Woodhouse promised to follow this up with a law that ended the abusive zero hour contracts.

"However to my horror he has actually introduced a law that makes the situation worse for workers in NZ.

"The new law actually legalises zero hour contracts whereas in th past their was some legal ambiguity in their use.

"The MBIE website is upfront. It says that with the new law “The employer and the employee do not have to agree on set hours if both prefer flexibility.” http://employment.govt.nz/er/services/law/legislationreviews/zero-hour-contracts/

"The explanatory notes refers to 'Where the parties to an employment agreement agree to a set number of hours' and so envisages a situation where no set hours are agreed.

"The law allow employers to give workers an employment agreement with not set hours so long as there is some compensation for being available for shifts. The compensation is not specified so it could be as little as one dollar.

The draft law says "the availability provision may relate to (a) all work performed under the employment agreement." That is a zero hours contract!

"The new law assumes equality in an employment relationship. Woodhouse knows that is a lie.

"When a young, unemployed worker turns up at a fast food giant and asks for work they can't negotiate as equals. If the are offered a contract with no fixed hours and compensation of a few dollars a week for being available they will accept it.

"That has been the reality for worker in the fast food industry until recently.

"The new law also allows companies to reduce what they have to pay for cancelling shifts. Under the law at present a worker who is offered a shifts and agrees to work must be paid for the shift if it is cancelled or they are sent home early. Under the new law a compensation clause of some nominal amount could be "agreed" in the contract as an alternative.

"I didn't expect much from Woodhouse and his big business mates. I though we would have a token law without much substance. But it is truly horrifying that the law is actually making the situation worse for hundreds of thousands of workers who are in no position to negotiate terms when they front up to an employer for a job. Woodhouse should be sent back to the drawing board and the law must be completely rewritten to be of any use.

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