CTU Media Release

23 November 2010

Unions will not let up in their campaign against National’s unfair and regressive employment laws, said the CTU, despite the passing of the Employment Relations Act and Holidays Act Amendment Bills in Parliament.

CTU President Helen Kelly said: “Unions are not sitting back in defeat at this moment. We will continue to campaign against this government’s attack on work rights and its continuing failure to take adequate action against unemployment.”

“When 80 percent of New Zealanders agree that everyone should have the right to appeal against unfair dismissal, even within their first 90 days, you do not simply give up when the Government chooses to ignore them. The Government has chosen to ignore all the best advice on both the ERA and Holidays Acts and has listened only to business lobbies.”

“There are 150,000 New Zealanders officially unemployed, yet the Government’s response is to weaken everyone else’s job security as though that was the root of the country’s economic problems. It seeks to weaken wage bargaining when our wages are falling further and further behind Australia’s.”

“Tax cuts and the GST rise have simply handed more wealth to those who have most already and heaped a greater burden on those who have least. Ninety percent of people now realise they are either no better or worse off after the tax cuts.”

“Workers covered by union-negotiated collective agreements are still receiving wage increases and unions will continue to fight for better wages, fair work rights and action on unemployment.”