Read this article in:
19 November, 2007
New Zealand’s Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) is giving support to a Private Member’s Bill put forward by an MP that would give labour agency workers the right to be covered by a collective agreement.
Labour MP Darien Fenton has submitted the legislation to New Zealand’s Parliament, saying contract labourers and agency workers are often placed in a workplace to do the same job that full-time workers perform. But, he added, they are paid less and have fewer rights.
The proposed legislative change is called the Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Bill.
Fenton saw first-hand the unfairness faced by temporary workers. He recently visited a worksite where temporary workers from an agency are employed. “Entitlements are few and far between,” he said. “There are no entitlements to breaks apart from lunch. There are no shift payments, no overtime rates, no weekend rates or other allowances, even though directly-employed workers receive these things.
“Under my bill, workers like these will be able to join the collective agreement in force at the workplace, thus ensuring they have the same pay and rights as directly-employed workers.”
Since Fenton’s bill is a Private Member’s Bill, in New Zealand it means that it will have to wait to be drawn from the ballot before it is brought before Parliament.