CTU MEDIA RELEASE
26 October 2006

CTU Welcomes Review of Casual Employment

The Council of Trade Unions today welcomed a forthcoming review of casual work.

“Casual employment is a major problem for many workers as they are totally insecure about their terms of employment, their hours of work, their entitlements to sick leave and holidays and their employment status in relation to any workplace problems,” CTU secretary Carol Beaumont said.

“This is an unsatisfactory situation and needs to be addressed,” she said.

“While we have low unemployment in New Zealand, we also have a lot of 'low quality' employment.”

“There are of course instances of genuine casuals where the arrangement suits the worker and the employer. However there are some workers who are classified as casuals when in fact they turn up to work on a regular basis and to all intents and purposes are no different from a permanent worker.”

The CTU has met with Peter Brown, Deputy Leader of NZ First on numerous occasions and acknowledges his strong advocacy for casual workers.

“We look forward to working with the Minister of Labour and Peter Brown and other interested parties on what we hope will be an extensive review of casual employment,” Carol Beaumont said.

Ends.

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