Industrial relations policy lacking detail

Industrial relations policy lacking detail

Business needs to know what industrial relations system would be introduced if New Zealand got a Labour-led government following the election, says BusinessNZ.

Labour has promised a system of Fair Pay Agreements where large collective agreements covering entire occupations and many businesses would be promoted, and says it will take a year to work out the details of the policy.

BusinessNZ Chief Executive Kirk Hope said what has been proposed is a substantial change to the framework that industrial relations has been conducted within for the last 30 years.

"Business would be concerned if the Fair Pay Agreements resembled National Awards which caused strikes and economic decline in the past.

"Business seeks reassurance that these proposed large collectives would be different from the National Awards of the past.

"Business wants Labour to be more specific now about their plans for industrial relations in the future.

"Business - particularly small business - has a right to know how all this might work," Kirk Hope said.

ENDS

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