Tens of thousands of Kiwi workers sacked

new-zealand-council-of-trade-unions

Tue Mar 05 2019 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Tens of thousands of Kiwi workers sacked

Tuesday, 5 March 2019, 11:13 am
Press Release: New Zealand Council of Trade Unions

Government research conducted by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) shows tens of thousands of Kiwi workers are being sacked by their employers every year as employers take advantage of unfair trial periods.

"What this research shows us is that people who are employed on trial periods are being increasingly treated as disposable. Working people need fairer laws to protect them from this type of employment practice. The Government needs to act to ensure that working Kiwis are being treated fairly and removing trial periods from the law would ensure that employers were not able to treat working people as being a disposable resource," CTU President, Richard Wagstaff said.

"Based on MBIE research 80,070 employers used trial periods during the year. That is a minimum of 80,070 employees on trial periods, but we suspect many more Kiwi workers were on trial periods. 20,300 employers dismissed an employee during or at the end of the trial period. That is a minimum of 20,300 employees dismissed on trial periods, but once again we suspect many more Kiwi workers have been sacked by their employers. Another shocking component in the story is that these questions were asked in 2014/15 and the figures then were 57,600 and 13,600 respectively."

"Trial periods are unfair and unnecessarily. We need to make our employment laws fairer for all Kiwis - removing trial periods from law is urgently needed," Wagstaff said.

ENDS

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