Fair Pay Agreements Bill

Good morning, members. The committee has resumed for further consideration of the Fair Pay Agreements Bill. When we were debating this bill only last evening, we were considering Part 10A, which is the debate on clauses 228BA to 228Q, “Determinations in absence of bargaining side”. The question is that Part 10A stand part.

Thank you very much Madam Chair. It’s great to be back here this morning at 9 o’clock on what is a fantastic opportunity for us to go through this piece of legislation, and I think we’re doing reasonably well to get into the detail.

Minister Wood, thank you very much for your contribution to date. I want to get into detail around clause 228BF, “Notification requirements: employers”. It links back to a conversation and a point we were raising last evening in terms of the fact that a significant increase in the volume of businesses that will be captured by this legislation is driving a significant amount of demand on those individuals. And this point relates to the notification requirements. My question to the Minister quite simply is: what does that notification protocol and process look like? This clause specifically refers to the fact that an employer must provide that notification to each of the employer’s employees, so every single one of them is covered by the proposed renewal.

That sounds all nice when it’s written down but what’s the practicality of that, and, I guess, the assurance process to ensure that that notification actually has occurred and has been received, particularly in businesses—and I’m not talking about the large-scale businesses which have very clear and concise protocols around contact information for their employees. I’m thinking about the dairy owners. I’m thinking about the small businesses across the country and in rural New Zealand where some of this may be a little bit more difficult. So that’s the aspect of information where I’d appreciate some clarity from the Minister, and then we’ll pick up another clause after that. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr Watts, for your question. Many of the provisions in Part 10A are effectively repeat provisions from earlier on in the bill. This part, as members are well acquainted with, in particular deals with arrangements around backstops, so it repeats many of the provisions from earlier on, and those arrangements are in place, and this relates to a proposed replacement of a fair pay agreement.

I think the answer is relatively simple. The way that notification works is that it is the responsibility of the union who is either initiating or renewing to provide notification through to employers. Employers then need to provide that to employees. Most commonly, I would imagine, that will happen through employees being emailed, a relatively simple thing to do. In a very small workplace—for example, a small business that’s a dairy has been used several times in this debate—it could be emailed directly to that employee or it could simply be shown to the employee. I don’t think it’s going to be a particularly burdensome or difficult process.

The question is that Chris Baillie’s tabled amendment to clause 228BI be agreed to.

Chris Baillie’s amendment to clause 228KA set out on Supplementary Order Paper 270 is out of order as being inconsistent with a previous decision of the committee.