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Opinion

Collective Bargaining

Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson in a speech to the industrial relations conference in March this year, among other issues, said:

Enabling choice and flexibility for employees and employers was the general theme of the Ministers speech and the commitment to remove the union monopoly in collective bargaining will be a significant step in the right direction. More needs to be done to address communications and the 30 day rule.

Communications

A significant issue in collective bargaining is the need to ensure that employer and employee bargaining is conducted in “good faith”. Communications during bargaining has been an area where employers have one hand tied behind their back as the law is unclear on the issue of communication by employers with employees during bargaining. Changes to the communications provisions in the ERA to ensure employers and employees are free to communicate directly with each other and not through a third party are important for building productive employment relations. Good faith provisions in the ERA ensure that communications are maintained on a professional and accurate basis. Genuinely held opinion of the parties should be able to be aired freely.

30 Day Rule

The requirement to apply a collective agreement for 30 days and provide the option after 30 days to negotiate an individual agreement is confusing for people especially when attempting to recruit overseas skilled professionals. It also creates, for many large employers, administratively cumbersome and costly processes. It should be sufficient for employers to provide information allowing prospective employees to choose between individual and collective agreements from the outset of employment.

Employment Authority

Recent Employment Authority decisions include:

• Confirmation that where redundancies are being considered the employer is not obliged to offer redundancy options to employees not directly affected by any proposed change initiative.
  
  
• Independent contractor criteria applied by the authority in a realistic assessment of the relationship and intent of the parties.
  
  
• Inadequate questioning and checking of an employment application and qualification requirements resulted in an employer being found to have unjustifiably dismissed an employee who was later found to be unable to meet the requirements of the job.
  
  
• Fixed term employment requirements were reinforced in a decision which among other things contained the following statement, “The Authority found that the reasons given by the University in the letters of appointment as "staffing needs" and "funding arrangements" were deficient.”
  
  
• Restating that one of the most fundamental rules of contractual interpretation is that the words used must be applied according to their ordinary meaning if the meaning is clear. In this case the union challenged the interpretation by the employer of the coverage clause to exclude a manager role. The authority found the union was fully aware of the wording before ratification and had opportunity to ensure the words reflected the intention.

Viruses: Economic, Swine Flu and the Internet

Economic recession and the flu pandemic cause deep gloom for globalisation. Economists are concerned that economic nationalism is returning while governments and national health authorities are demanding border controls in the fight against the looming flu pandemic.

Sub prime mortgage lending in the affluent societies of the USA and the UK spread economic flu around the globe, whether this develops into economic pneumonia is yet to be determined, so far all treatment for economic recovery has failed. Over optimistic commentators continuously predict recovery in one to two years. Past histories of recessions show around 3 to 5 years to recover and severe depressions anywhere from 8 to 15 years. Japan has been trying to recover from a recession for nearly 10 years to date.

What is becoming clear is the need for new regulation and controls not only at a national level but internationally as well. Globalisation has created the conditions for viruses to move rapidly. The sub prime mortgage, swine flu and computer viruses are all indicators of a more interconnected world and in effect measures of the success of globalisation.

The obvious groups will use these events to drive the argument against globalisation but what is needed is a more effective and well organised global structures supported by effective regulations and controls. Patently, existing nationally based controls are inadequate in economic, legal and social terms. Standards of health services in each part of the world, regulation and control of local financial markets, security of the internet, international airports and travel, transportation of goods are now everyone’s concern.

What is needed is a more confident and trusted globalisation.