Employment Relations Policies of New Zealand Political Parties

With the general election next month, it is timely to consider the employment relations policies of the major political parties. Across the political spectrum, the parties offer distinct approaches, ranging from state supported work’s rights to employer flexibility.

Labour Party

• Wages and Living Standards: Promises to progressively extend the living wage to health and education workers, reduce the gap between the minimum and living wages, and set minimum wage increases above inflation.
• Collective Bargaining: Supports restoring Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs), protecting collective bargaining rights, and strengthening union access
• Worker Protections: Opposes 90-day trial extensions and supports tightening contractor definitions to prevent workers being misclassified.

National Party

• Employer Flexibility: Focuses on employer-determined workplace flexibility and individual employee choices regarding statutory minimums.

• Hiring and Trials: Favours the use of 90-day trial periods and streamlined employment structures to encourage business confidence and hiring.

• Industrial Policy: Generally, aligns with reducing prescriptive labour market regulations, declining formal union-backed industrial scorecards in favour of market-driven flexibility.
  

Green Party

• Workers' Rights: Strongly opposes legislation that weakens the Employment Relations Act (ERA), advocating for stronger protections for vulnerable and gig-economy workers.

• Contractors: Seeks to reform laws so gig-economy workers (such as Uber drivers) are correctly classified as employees with full statutory rights.

• Equity: Supports robust pay equity systems and higher baseline standards for workplace safety and leave.

ACT New Zealand

• Market Flexibility: Promotes deregulation of the labour market to lower costs for businesses and increase hiring freedom.
• Individual Contracts: Advocates for simplified contracting and opposed to industry-wide or sector-wide collective bargaining frameworks like FPAs.