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The old saying is that you often don’t miss something until it is gone and that may well prove to be true when we get to experience Labour at full throttle without Winston Peters and NZ First acting as a hand brake.
The Council of Trade Unions’ press release headline on Sunday was:
Government Without A Handbrake Should Be Able To Move Faster
The press release leaves readers in no doubt that the Council of Trade Unions saw Winston Peters and NZ First as the only thing standing between their demands and their implementation. Now that he and NZ First are gone the council has made their expectations of Jacinda Ardern’s government crystal clear.
“Working people and their unions have expectations that a new government without a handbrake will move faster and further to support people and the environment.”
“While important progress was made in the last three years, we expect to see more and faster positive change in the next term.”
“People have spoken and we have collectively chosen to elect a progressive government, without a handbrake, which will place people at the heart of decisions. This next Government has been given an overwhelming mandate to end poverty and inequality in New Zealand. A strong union movement is at the heart of that.”
So what does the Council think that the end of poverty and inequality will look like?
We expect the new Labour led government to take swift action on their election commitments including –
More sick leave
Safer sick leave – as per their election promise, we look forward to the increase to 10 days sick leave being put into law in their first 100 days in office, enabling people to take sick leave from the first day of work, and getting rid of National’s unfair changes around medical certificates.
Fair Pay Agreements
All the work has been done, and now is the time for implementation including the passing of legislation in line with the Framework for Fairness principles for a good FPA law and the Joint Working Group recommendations:
Make Work Safe
[…] increasing funding to WorkSafe, reviewing the Health and Safety at Work Act, ensuring there are elected Health and Safety representatives in all work places, ensuring there are better protections against psychosocial harm and empowering working people to keep their work safe under the law.
Extending the Living Wage to all contractors in the public sector.
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