Our Open Letter

Dear Minister Wood,

Your Government is trying to pass a law that we think will damage industrial relations and take New Zealand employees and employers back generations. You call these “Fair Pay Agreements” -  they’re not fair and they won’t achieve what you say.

In our view, at the stroke of a pen, FPAs take away control from employees and employers to negotiate pay and working conditions, and hand it over to Wellington negotiators who have no idea who we are or our individual needs and they’ll negotiate without our consent.

As employers and employees, we know, and have suggested to Government, that there’s a smarter way to make sure employers are looking after vulnerable workers. A compulsory FPA system that is forced on us all isn’t it.

As we see it, at their heart FPAs are about compulsion, meaning working New Zealanders and their employers lose control over the way they work and the right to negotiate their own employment conditions. That’s definitely not fair.

It’s not okay for Kiwis to have their right to negotiate their working conditions with their employer stripped away from them because a tiny percentage of workers in their industry think it’s the right thing to do.

We agree that the current system needs to improve.  

But, higher wages come from improved productivity and a more skilled workforce. We do not believe that FPAs will achieve either of those things. They are a step backward, a solution looking for a problem.

A far better option is to identify sectors that are facing wage challenges and develop a targeted solution to fix the problems in those few sectors. We don’t need a one-size-fits-all, bureaucratic, sledgehammer solution across all sectors.

Our request to the Government is simple: listen to employers and employees, scrap compulsory FPA legislation and do what your own officials have recommended - improve and strengthen the current system.  

We urge all Kiwis to join our campaign rejecting FPAs and calling for a smarter way of working - your work, your way.

Yours sincerely

‍

Kirk Hope                          

CEO of BusinessNZ (+ other BusinessNZ Network CEOs signatures)

Sign the open letter at yourworkyourway.nz