“The EMA submission to the select committee considering new health and safety law was the same sort of scare story they mounted on the Employment Relations Act,” said Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson today.
“Just as the sky did not fall in when the ERA became law in October 2000, as he predicted, this bill will do nothing more than improve the health and safety protection of people at work.”
Ross Wilson said the doomsayers like Peter Tritt who predicted mayhem when the ERA became law have since had to eat humble pie.
“Those drumming up opposition to laws to address our rising tally of workplace deaths and our unacceptable tally of injury and illness will also be have to eat humble pie,” he said.
Ross Wilson said it was clear that EMA was running a scare campaign to attempt to drive up small business opposition to the bill.
“Business New Zealand is on record reassuring employers that they are not going to be slammed with massive fines they cannot afford,” he said.
“Those driving up opposition to the bill are trying to scare businesses into believing that they will be fined huge sums for trivial matters, that unions are getting some special right to prosecute, and that there will be a new liability for any stress or fatigue experienced by employees,” he said.
“Nothing could be further from the truth.”
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