The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions.
“This is dire, draconian and outright disgraceful even by the Government’s own standards,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Workplace Relations, Teanau Tuiono.
“The ability to strike, organise and collectively bargain is a democratic right. These are critical tools that have empowered workers to contest and challenge unfair working conditions in the uneven playing field between them and their bosses.
“Workers should be able to use their collective power to fight for better pay and conditions. What the Government has proposed would make it easier for bosses to dock the pay of staff who challenge the working conditions they are subjected to. This is disgraceful.
“The Government is getting in ahead of the collective bargaining in the big public sector workforces next year to undermine their ability to strike, and try to frighten the workers into accepting the miserly offers that are coming. The introduction of this legislation is quite clearly an attempt to force people to grin, bear and accept the substandard working conditions this Government is inflicting on them.
“If the Government wants to see fewer strikes it could just pay our nurses, teachers and doctors what they deserve instead of dishing out billions of dollars in tax cuts to wealthy landlords.
“This is another classic example of the Government rolling out the red carpet for big business at the expense of everyone else.
“The Green Party will fight this legislation every step of the way while continuing to champion workers’ rights. Our people deserve so much better than what this Government is giving them,” says Teanau Tuiono.
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