Minister for Workplace
Relations and Safety
The Government is delivering on
its pre-election commitment to implement Fair Pay Agreements
which will improve wages and conditions, as well as help
support our economic recovery, Workplace Relations and
Safety Minister Michael Wood announced today.
Fair Pay
Agreements will set minimum standards for all employees and
employers in an industry or occupation. The Government today
released the details of the process unions and employers
will go through to agree set minimum standards that are
relevant to their sector. These proposals substantively
implement the system proposed by the Rt Hon Jim Bolger led
Working Group in 2019.
The Government is drafting legislation, which will be introduced later this year, and is expected to pass in 2022.
When it comes into force, any union will be able to initiate the FPA process as long as they can demonstrate support from either 10 percent or 1000 employees in the proposed industry or occupation.
FPAs can also be initiated via a public interest test in an industry or occupation where employment issues exist, such as low pay or limited bargaining power.
All employees will be covered by FPAs, even if they aren t already part of a union.
Both employees and employers covered by a proposed FPA will be able to participate in the process. In the case of employers, there will be a small weighting towards small businesses to ensure they have appropriate voice in the process.
Press Release – New Zealand Government
The Government is delivering on its pre-election commitment to implement Fair Pay Agreements which will improve wages and conditions, as well as help support our economic recovery, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood announced today.
Hon Michael Wood
Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety
The Government is delivering on its pre-election commitment to implement Fair Pay Agreements which will improve wages and conditions, as well as help support our economic recovery, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood announced today.
Fair Pay Agreements will set minimum standards for all employees and employers in an industry or occupation. The Government today released the details of the process unions and employers will go through to agree set minimum standards that are relevant to their sector. These proposals substantively implement the system proposed by the Rt Hon Jim Bolger led Working Group in 2019.
But National s workplace relations spokesperson Scott Simpson fears the Labour Government is taking New Zealand back to an era of industrial action in the 1970s, when strikes were at an all-time high. This is compulsory wage controls. It is unionism gone universal, Simpson says. The National Party will repeal these recycled National Awards.
National Awards were based on the principle that basic terms and conditions were best established by the collective workforce. They laid out minimum wages and conditions across industries, with a Court of Arbitration settling disputes.
Strikes were prohibited - as they will be under FPAs - though they often happened anyway, perhaps because arbitration, or settling disputes, was compulsory at the time.