New Zealand has just passed a law that will revolutionise workers' rights. It probably won't last

[Celerity]

Jacinda Ardern’s government has radically expanded unions’ collective bargaining power. But if she goes at the next election, so will this legislation

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/29/new-zealand-has-just-passed-a-law-that-will-revolutionise-workers-rights-it-probably-wont-last



Changes of government often entail less change than people expect. When Jacinda Ardern came to power in 2017 she did not renationalise the power companies John Key had partly privatised, or immediately force agriculture into the emissions trading scheme. When Key came to power in 2008 he ended up increasing and building on Helen Clark’s working for families programme, which he had previously called “communism by stealth”. And when Clark was elected in 1999 the major rightward shift enacted in the 1980s and 1990s largely survived.

New governments find it hard to really tear up changes that their predecessors have managed to bed in. The public service has a bias towards the status quo and the public generally don’t like the expense of radical shifts to existing policies. This is the case both for physical infrastructure projects (no one wants to stop work that is already under way and tear up contracts) and for complex policy programmes such as KiwiSaver or working for families. Too many people were already getting serious gains from these policies by the time Key was elected for him to get rid of them.

There are exceptions, however, and we look set to see one next year if the opposition National party win office, an outcome several polls are now predicting. On Wednesday night Labour finally enacted one of its promises from the 2017 election, passing fair pay agreements (FPAs) into law. Despite not attracting all that much coverage, FPAs are the most consequential change to employment law in decades, significantly shifting the balance of power from employers to employees, and bringing New Zealand’s system much closer to Australia’s “modern awards”. National are absolutely dead set on repealing them.

These FPAs are essentially collective agreements struck not between a union and a single employer, but a union and every employer in an industry. Employers cannot walk away from this bargaining completely, as if they do the Employment Relations Authority can simply impose terms on all employers in the sector. Workers lose their ability to strike while negotiating such an agreement. The idea is not that every employee in the country will suddenly be covered by an FPA, but that a floor for pay and conditions can be set in poorly paid industries with low union membership, particularly those where contracting and subcontracting make working out who actually employs who a nightmare – think security guards and cleaners.

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