By VERNON SMALL deputy political editor
The Government may postpone for up to two months the implementation of its Employment Relations Bill as it tries to fix problems in the draft law.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday that the Coalition would "not be dying in a ditch" for the planned August 1 start date. It has already extended the June 20 deadline for the select committee hearing submissions on the bill to report back its findings.
She ruled out a delay of six months to its implementation date sought by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce.
Beehive sources said a delay until October 1 was possible, although trade unionists saw that as too long.
Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said the CTU was prepared to contemplate a delay of weeks, rather than months, to deal with the welter of submissions to the select committee. It was still looking at September 1 or even earlier for the bill to become law.
It hoped any changes could be settled quickly so it had a clear idea soon of the bill's provisions.
Labour Minister Margaret Wilson and Finance Minister Michael Cullen have said clauses in the bill would be clarified and others amended to meet some concerns of employers.
Ms Wilson took a paper to the cabinet yesterday outlining possible amendments.
Helen Clark said no decisions had been made, but there would certainly be changes.
In some areas clarification was needed and amendments would be made where there were reasonable concerns.
Changes would be discussed with New Zealand First and the Greens.
She said some issues at the heart of the bill, such as allowing strikes in pursuit of multi-employer agreements, would not be altered.
Ms Wilson has signalled changes to provisions which would ensure independent contractors or those on fixed-term contracts would retain that status provided they had "informed consent."
Some independent contractors had been concerned they would be forced to become employees.
The CTU's Ross Wilson said provisions in the bill allowing those offered individual agreements to seek advice and the stipulation that contracts must be in writing were a type of informed consent.
But an "informed consent" notion was not ideal and he thought the case of contractors could be solved by restricting court applications to named parties, preventing actions that redefined classes of contractors.
Changes are also likely to requirements that unions and employers "open the books" on financial affairs and business plans relevant to bargaining.
Opposition leader Jenny Shipley said yesterday that "fiddling with the words" of the bill would not end the crisis of business confidence.
She said a minimum of 25 changes were needed, including scrapping the planned union monopoly on collective agreements, dropping reinstatement as the primary remedy in personal grievance cases, and removing constraints on the use of outside workers during strike action.
Govt pulls back on work bill
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