Monitoring role for department

Press, 24 September 1987, Page 9

Monitoring role for department

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington Monitoring the outcome of the new Labour Relations Act will be the chief task during the next three years for the Labour Department, according to briefing papers it has prepared for the Government. The Minister of Labour, Mr Rodger, said he expected the rate of industrial relations change to slow. The act sought to encourage development of effective union and employer organisations which could work independently of legislative support. Effective organisations could then negotiate awards and agreements relevant to the industry or

workplace in which they applied, and which would be adhered to, the papers said. Mr Rodger said the strategies adopted to achieve this included establishing the principle that each worker’s employment should be regulated by a single, comprehensive agreement that was freely negotiated, administered and enforced by the parties to it. A strengthening was recommended of the extent to which union officials were accountable to their members for the actions they took. Mr Rodger said a clearer definition of the circumstances in which strikes and lock-outs were lawful or unlawful had been established.