Minister comes clean on 90 day trial periods

new-zealand-labour-party

Thu Oct 14 2010 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Minister comes clean on 90 day trial periods

Thursday, 14 October 2010, 5:05 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

Minister comes clean on 90 day trial periods

After weeks of claiming that the 90 day trial period in the Employment Relations Bill (No 2), currently before select committee is “voluntary” and that “employees don’t need to have a trial period if they don’t want one” the Minister of Labour has now refused to rule out making the 90 day trial period a mandatory provision for every New Zealand wage and salary earner, Labour’s Associate Spokesperson for Labour and Industrial Relations Darien Fenton said today.

“In answers to questions in the House today as to whether the Minister would rule out making the 90 day trial period a default provision for all employers, the Minister said no.

“Making a 90 day trial period the default provision would mean that every employment agreement would automatically have a 90 day trial period.

“The default provision has been pushed at Select Committee by employers who want to be able to deny rights for workers to have a reason for being sacked and to be able to challenge that reason.

“Firstly, it was 90 days for workplaces with 20 or less employees.

“Then the Minister was rolled by Rodney Hide and her intention to extend 90 day trials to workplaces of 50 or less workers became all workplaces.

“Now the Minister is saying that’s not enough, even although she has repeatedly insisted that 90 day trials would be voluntary and reached by agreement in good faith.

“Next it will be 90 days isn’t enough, so it will become 100 days, and then 180 days.

“What’s disappointing is that the Minister seems all too willing to listen to ACT and some employers, but appears to have her ears shut to the thousands of workers who have made submissions to the Select Committee saying 90 day trial periods and a denial of access to justice is unfair and unjustified,” Dairen Fenton said.

ENDS

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

a.supporter:hover {background:#EC4438!important;} @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { #byline-block div.byline-block {padding-right:16px;}}

Using Scoop for work?

Scoop is free for personal use, but you’ll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features.

Join Pro Individual Find out more

Find more from New Zealand Labour Party on InfoPages.