Industrial Relations Policy Summary

Read the full Industrial Relations Policy

Key Principles

• Pay and employment equity for all workers, including Maori.
• Workers, employers and unions all involved in decision-making about the workplace.
• Workplace democracy and collective organisation are essential to address the inherent potential for inequality of power between employers and employees.
• Workers need protection under the law and should be paid a living wage.
• Workplaces that are safe, healthy and free from discrimination.

Specific Policy Points

Living Wage and Job Security

• Increase the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, and ensure it does not fall below 66% of the average wage.
• Make the minimum wage the same for all workers, including youth and employed trainees.
• Support workers' calls for fair wages.
• Improve rights and protection for casual, seasonal, fixed term and
  temporary workers.

Work/Life Balance

• Require employers to consider, in good faith, requests for flexible working arrangements from the parents of young children.

Industrial Democracy

• Support a complete review of the Employments Relations Act.
• Improve workplace democracy and improve workers’ union representation and participation in the future of their work.
• Implement international standards on the right to strike, worker accident compensation, pay equity and breastfeeding breaks.

Collective Organising and Bargaining

• Support initiatives for multi-party bargaining, including multi-employer collective bargaining, and collective bargaining for contractors.
• Support the right of unionised workers to prevent freeloading by non-union workers.

Pay and Employment Equity

• Better access to information on employment rights for vulnerable workers.
• Support equal pay for men and women workers for work of equal value.
• Increase workplace access to subsidised early childhood and after school care.

Healthy and Safe Workplaces

• Stronger laws for key health and safety areas including hazardous substances, harrassment, occupational cancer, pregnancy, lone working, stress.
• Where employers are prosecuted and fined for breaches of workplace safety, a portion of the fine will be paid to workers injured as a result of the breach.

State Sector

Support a review of the State Sector Act and the Public Finance Act to provide greater collaboration across government agencies to:

• Promote a strong public sector, operating as a single entity.
• Lessen competition between departments.
• Promote better employment practices.
• Promote multi departmental collective bargaining of consistent wages & conditions for state sector workers.