Really, really, really, really, really watered down Workplace relations law passed – NZ doesn’t implode into socialist apocalypse

I’m not having a good year am I?

Yawn…

Workplace relations law finally passed after tortured journey
The Government finally passed its flagship workplace relations bill after months of consternation, ending 90-day trials for large businesses.

The bill was twice softened by Labour’s coalition partner NZ First – first before it was introduced and then before the second reading.

The behind-the-scenes controversy over the bill spilled out into the public arena in August and September when NZ First MP Shane Jones criticised parts of it on Q+A and leader Winston Peters described it as a “work in progress”. This led to unions writing directly to Peters asking him to back down.

…the National Party and their Boss mates whipped this toothless lapdog up as the first shots in some communist revolution that would a socialist apocalypse unleashed on the mums and dads of NZ.

The Workplace relations law was always a watered down meaningless bit of nothing that simply took the Union movement back 10 years to before National had stripped them bare. There isn’t anything modern or empowering about this legislation, it is a whitewash lip service to the union moment to look like something has been done when really very little has changed.

The established Unions will have the same monopoly they’ve always enjoyed while the vast majority of workers receive very little in terms of empowerment.

The Government may as well have done nothing. Total victory to the business community for manufacturing a threat out of this mirage.