New bill supported by farm workers

Press, 31 August 1977, Page 5

New bill supported by farm workers

The New Zealand Farm Workers’ Association supported the Agricultural Workers’ Bill, recently introduced into Parliament, the president of the association, Mr D. Hedderwick, said in submissions to the Parliamentary Labour Bills Committee. The association was formed in March, 1974, and has since campaigned to improve the position of farm workers. Mr Hedderwick said that the association represented workers under the Agricultural Workers’ and Farms and Stations Orders of the old Act. “From the mid 1950 s onward these two orders were allowed to become moribund,” he said, “with the result that for the last 20 years farm employment has not been subject to proper minimum standards fixed by law.” The Workers’ Union had claimed legal coverage of some areas, but had done nothing for many years in most, and the Farm Workers’ Association had come into existence to fill this gap. It was most regettable to see the Workers’ Union now opposing legislation which would provide a modern industrial system for all farm workers. “They have been rejected themselves,” he said, “but they still seem to obstruct those in the field.” In its submissions, the association said that the old wage fixing system in the farm industry had not worked well and had left

workers without any power to force a decision. Final control had been in the hands of the Minister of Labour, and there could be, and 1 had been, bitter disputes over the rights of representation, which had delayed or even prevented new wage fixing orders. In August last year the association had presented draft legislation suggesting changes in the areas restricted to its members. The Minister of Labour and the Labour Department had then reviewed the general situation and the outcome of the association's initial submission had been the present bill. “It is particularly pleasing to the Farm Workers’ Association to see that the Government has extended our proposals for reform to other areas of farm work, so that workers in those areas will not continue to face the same difficulties as faced us,” said the association. The bill provided for a system of individual disputes procedures, conciliation and the making of wage-fixing awards by the Agricultural Tribunal. The bill repeated the previous provisions about agricultural accommodation and proposed a new general code for farm safety. It also initially proposed special protection against victimisation of individual farm workers, but the association told the committee that it had been assured by the Labour Department that this was

now provided in the Human Rights Commission Bill. Other provisions of the bill which had attracted some criticism had in fact, come from earlier legislation and had been proved to work in prac- 1 tice. I n supplementary submissions the association’s representatives, who included the vice-presi-dent, Mr D. Pearson (Taihape), and Mr D. Searle (Canterbury), and Mrs R. Lawrence and B. Ironside (Hawke’s Bay) listed in the association’s achievements in spite of the difficulties it faced under current legislation. These included the first terms and conditions of employment for farm workers, the creation of a superannuation scheme, the first steps in the direction of a rural housing programme, discount purchasing schemes and a credit union and representation on a wide range of agricultural bodies. They asked that the bill’s provisions be extended to include power over married housing for Labour Department inspectors and a strengthening of the personal grievance procedure. After the submissions had been made, Mr Hedderwick said “the association is in general satisfied with the present bill. There is an atmosphere of confidence because an Agricultural Tribunal with specialised knowledge is created. The bill will provide the machinery to make this work.”