03 March 2005

Return to the 1990s with National Party Industrial Relations Policy

The National Party’s industrial relations policy promised a return to the grim days of the 1990s for workers, Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said today.

National’s industrial relations spokesperson Wayne Mapp announced the policy this afternoon.

“The National Party is signalling a return to the disastrous low wage strategy of the 1990s and a new version of the Employment Contracts Act,” Ross Wilson said.

“It still sees workers as a cost rather than an asset – an approach that has no place in the modern workplace of the 21st century.”

It was obvious that a vote for National would be a vote for a return of the Employment Contracts Act.

“Workers would lose rate and a half on public holidays and four weeks annual leave, workplace health and safety protection would be weakened, personal grievance protection would be removed for thousands of workers, and it would mean a re-legalisation of the Employment Relations Authority,” Ross Wilson said.

ENDS

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