Labour bill gets second reading

Press, 13 May 1987, Page 8

Labour bill gets second reading

Wellington reporter The need for labour relations reform was urgent, the Minister of Labour, Mr Rodger, told Parliament in the second reading of the Labour Relations Bill yesterday.

While there was a climate for substantial reform there was little consensus on the direction that reform should take. He said the sharpest differences were between employer and union groups, and unanimity was also lacking within these groups. On the one hand, some employer submissions had promoted a radically different system based on a totally flexible and enter-prise-centred system of representation and bargaining; on the other, many individual employer groups had expressed support for the continuation of a national award system.

Without the necessary consensus, the responsibility for reform shifted to the Government, Mr Rodger, said, but the Gov-

home, Miss J. Croft, said that Mrs Borthwick had spent most of her life in Dunedin. A birthday party was held at the home' and Mrs Borthwick received telegrams from the Queen, the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Tapsell, the Minister of Police, Mrs Hercus, and the Heathcote County Council.

ernment had not set out to -impose an ideal labour relations system. Given the sort of economic adjustment occurring now, Mr Rodger said, unions could not expect to sit back and demand that their world continue to reflect the comfortable past. It was essential that labour relations change to accommodate economic adjustment.

The Government took urgency on the Labour Relations Bill in the face of strenuous objections from the Opposition. The Opposition spokesman on labour, Mr Bill Birch (Nat., Franklin), said the Government was putting a gloss on legislation that was an unfortunate and big step backwards.

“Powerful, Communistcontrolled unions will continue to run industrial relations in this country,” he said. “Wage negotiations in this country are inflexible and union-driven.”

But Mr Rodger said that to adapt to the hieeds generated by economic adjustment, union organ-

isation and structure would have to be revamped to meet their ex-

panded responsibilities under the bill, to provide the better services needed by their membership.

The bill had three main elements:—

• It provided the opportunity for unions to become more self-reliant and independent through new organisation methods and structures to develop increased accountability and effectiveness.

• It provided the opportunity for unions and employers to develop new strategies in bargaining to procure awards and agreements that were relevant to the workplace and the industry.

• It provided the opportunity to enforce greater sanctity of agreement. Mr Rodger said the labour market was not just another market dressed up differently.

The bill was a necessary compromise, if one side were not to be able to impose their views on the other, he said.